Desirable New World. Diverse, Sustainable and

Transcription

desirable
new
d
l
r
o
w
LIFE IN 2 0 4 2 : S USTAINABLE,
DIVER S E , AND CRE ATIV E
LALA DEHEIN ZEL IN A N D
CRIE FUTUROS M OVEM EN T
© Otto Coletivo Fotográfico
WHY NOT?
This should be our guiding phrase as we think of futures and
free ourselves from what’s known and plausible to plunge into
what’s desirable.
Why not create another economy, where “value” is more than
just financial worth? Why not create a model of government
ruled by merit and direct participation of the people? Why
not have cities built for enjoying time instead of occupying
space? Or have “care” be the guide of all kinds of activities
in the 21st century? Why not have the kind of education that
teaches us how to make good choices and then understand
the consequences of each one of them? Why not leave behind
all the daily problems caused by fear and mistrust? Why not
establish relationships, businesses, and territories based on
trust? Why not embrace collaboration as a modus operandi?
A sustainable, diverse, and creative world. Why not?
LALA DEHEINZELIN is one of the pioneers in
Creative Economy
in Brazil. Relating sustainability and models for the future with
experiences in Creative Economy, she has worked as a consultant,
lecturer, and workshop instructor in different countries on four
continents. Her transdisciplinary activity began in the cultural sector
and has extended to include work developed with corporations, the
third sector, governments and development agencies, multilateral
organizations, and collaborative networks.
Lala is a founder and director of Enthusiasmo Cultural and creator of
the Crie Futuros movement.
She served as a Senior Advisor to the UNDP’s Special Unit on
South-South Cooperation, from 2005 to 2011; as a Member of the
Board at the National Institute of Fashion and Design; and and is
one of the founders of the Future Studies Nucleus of the Pontifical
Catholic University, PUC. Find out more about Ms. Deheinzelin at
www.laladeheinzelin.com
La l a D eh ein zel in
DESIRABLE NEW WORLD
Life in 2042: Sustainable, diverse and creative
F ir s t E dit ion
São Paulo, SP. Br az il | 2012
Publis hing: Claudia D eheinz elin
English text: Eugênia D eheinz elin and W illian K rell
Dados Internacionais de Catalogação na Publicação (CIP)
(Câmara Brasileira do Livro, SP, Brasil)
Deheinzelin, Lala
Desirable new world [livro eletrônico] : life
in 2042 : sustainable, diverse and creative / Lala
Deheinzelin ; [English version Eugênia Deheinzelin
and William Krell]. -- São Paulo : Ed. do Autor,
2012.
Título original: Desejável mundo novo : vida
sustentável, diversa e criativa em 2042.
Vários colaboradores.
1. Criatividade 2. Desenvolvimento sustentável
3. Futuro – Perspectivas 4. Imaginário coletivo
5. Movimento Crie Futuros 6. Movimentos sociais
7. Mudanças sociais I. Título.
12-06714
Índices para catálogo sistemático:
1. Crie Futuros : Movimento para criação de
futuros desejáveis : Mudanças sociais :
Sociologia 303.4
CDD-303.4
SUmmary
1 Why, What for, How
9
Create desirable futures, why? • Our starting point • Sustainability how? Three infinites • Lending a helping hand to the future • Why don’t we change the world? • A
dialogue in the future, Pichi de Benedicts.
2 Gain, Valuate, Negotiate 27
Work to live, or live to work? • Multi dimensional wealth index, a desirable future • Economy of Abundance, systemic economy • Time: the fifth element • 4DxT Economy:
multidimensional resources, results, and values • From the linear to the volumetric: visualize to understand and act • New indicators and ways to measure wealth •
Activation Function: from absolute value to relative value • 4DxT Currencies and alternative currencies • New context, new professionals dynamics • Earning one’s
multicurrency life in economy 2.0, Melanie Swan.
3 Govern, Decide, Coordinate
51
Change of government model • From frontiers to membranes, from the wall to the skin • Planning, long-term, commitment • The role of the Macro Moderator: facilitator
and connector • Mesh Management: use what you have • Innovation and soft and low-tech technologies • New Law: trust and simplicity are the rule • Govern the future,
Joxean Fernandez • A prospective idea of culture: how will the culture of the future be?, Angel Mestres Vila.
4 Inhabit, Move, Circulate
77
Cities • The renaissance of the 21st century, Jorge Wilheim • Optecnia: nature and culture without a separation, Jacques Dezelin • In the neighborhoods • In the
countryside • Moving around
5 Care, Nurture, Preserve
93
Feeling with: our nature and nature • From recycling to empathy: sustainability from inside out • Water • We want more than just food! • Multi, trans, poly Health •
Health in 2042, from the outlook of “nonsensology”, Wellington Nogueira • Caring a lot, Silvina Martinez.
6 Learn, Create, Communicate 111
Where are we? Another reading of the passing of time • Technology: means and not end • Tools for each layer of the Educreative process • About Educreative Spaces •
Education and future, Rosa Alegria • To make of the world we have the world we want, Maria Arlete Gonçalves
7 Be, Relate, Connect
141
Curiosities of the Forties • Our history in a year and a day • Gaia, the Earth as a living being • Transcending Culture • Cycles, flows, regulation • Homo Estheticus • From
fear to the now• The desirable and the plausible • From the book”Images of the Future”, Fred Polak
Credits, Acknowledgements, and History
Thanks to everyone who made this book possible! • Crie Futuros thanks • History
157
Céu D’Ellia, Brazil, 2000.
Welcome to our Desirable New World.
You are in 2042, when this fiction is taking place.
This is not a technical book on scenarios and projections of the future. It is an inspirational book. It shows the future that embodies the
desires of persons of all ages, backgrounds and training. Hence the name, which is a play of words with the, by no means desirable Brave
New World by Aldous Huxley, who in 1932 described a somber future. Indeed, today the future broadcast by the mainstream media, games
and science fiction is also somber. The assumption we stand for in Crie Futuros is that our dreams nurture the future – that is why we are
engaged in creating and spreading positive futures that may encourage the desire to make them come true.
The text follows two lines: the selection of futures from our collection, created under the Crie Futuros movement since 2008, that are
highlighted or interwoven in the text, and my conceptual line, which was also the reason for their selection, explained in Chapter 1. From it
I unfold in the remaining chapters the factors that I perceive as forces that shape the future. Finally, we have the precious contribution of
guests who disclose inspiring outlooks on the addressed themes.
The chapters are organized into macro-themes of everyday life, intentionally broad and generic, to avoid falling into familiar patterns.
For example, “education” recalls school, while “teaching and learning” can occur in many contexts. Of course, each subject is merely an outline of all that could be addressed, and the themes portrayed are those that appeared in Crie Futuros Workshops or in our site.
There are solutions, curiosities, lacks, delusions, inventions, childhood wisdom, drafts of laws, good ideas, impossible ideas (really?) yet
desirable. They serve to reflect the ability – or difficulty – we have to create our future. Unfortunately, many of the futures in our collection
are not propositive or creative and tend to fall into the abstract (“a world where all are happy”) or into the repetition of messages from
mainstream media (“we will protect our rivers”).
We invite you to interact with the collection in our wiki (www.criefuturos.com in Portuguese, English, and Spanish) because all futures
may be edited and complemented by new texts, images or videos.
Our desirable future is that this book may motivate more and more people to create the future as well as inspire leadership in decision
making and point out opportunities.
But above all, we hope that your reading is enjoyable and raises the question: “Why not?”
Lala Deheinzelin
Crie Futuros
“Every society is built on the basis of both its history and its dreams”
Carlos Fuentes
Prospective thinking has existed since ancient times, because as Peter Drucker says, “The best way to predict the future is to create it”. From
the standpoint of David Bohm’s Holomovement, the Explicit Order unfolds as an event based upon the underlying Implicit Order. The
extraordinary futurist and visionary Buckminster Fuller1 also believes that reality has an underlying inner path that may warn us about the
most radical transformations. When changes approach our reality, the turbulences of the system increase and watching them may allow us
to prepare adequately. How to access these changes that are underway, but still somewhat imperceptible?
In the fifties, in California, the Rand Corporation started the Delphi technique, applied to deal with the Fifteen Global Challenges by the
Millennium Project2, represented in Brazil by NEF. Domenico de Masi explores the theme of Creative Chaos and his latest book on Creative
Groups progresses in new trends with the use of collective intelligence and wisdom. In the nineties appeared the project Imagine Chicago by
Bliss Brown, who uses the technique of Appreciative Intergenerational Dialogue which continues to expand worldwide.
The Crie Futuros proposal aims to develop contexts to generate innovative ideas that are shared through social networks and thus pollinate
memes, in what Rupert Sheldrake calls morphogenetic fields. We believe that it might be close to the proposed Integration of Knowledge
initiated by C. R. Snow, in which the Exact Sciences (that analyze), the Social Sciences (that explain) and the Arts (that reveal) interact
synergistically. The latter we believe is the key at this time of planetary transition, disclosed by the creative economy or new concepts of
design, such as those proposed by Bruce Mau when he said in his book Massive Change: “It’s not about the world of design, but about the
design of the world.” Throughout the world universities concentrate their thinking on what this future may be, and how it develops,
resulting in prospective laboratories and projects such as EdXonline3.
In Greek thinking there are Kronos and Kairos, linear time and the time of opportunities, one more quantitative and the other more
qualitative. The current moment is one of opportunities, of accelerating processes and hoping that the initiatives suggested in the RIO +20
seeking a better future for all, such as those proposed in this book, might be implemented in the right way at the right time.
Arnoldo de Hoyos, 2012
Chairman of the NEF4, Center for Future Studies at PUC, the Catholic University of São Paulo
1
In his classic book Critical Path
2
www.millennium-project.org
3
www.edxonline.org
4
www.nef.org.br
To create the future, we have to let ir be born
Scene 1: In October 2010, I was with Lala in one of the first preparatory activities for the Rio +201 and of what would follow after it,
discussing perspectives to bring about the civilizatory transition we desire and need. We were dealing with what could become a “Global
Union for Sustainability.” Not coincidentally, we were together at the same table, along with Rosa Alegria, Pedro Tarak, Carlos Lopes 2 and
other colleagues. And we raised the flag: strategies and action plans are necessary, but not sufficient. We need a positive outlook of the
future, able to mobilize and direct our creative energy towards nurturing the spirits of millions of people. The idea was heard, and
appreciated, but was not considered as a central guideline.
Scene 2: When preparing that seminar, with other fellow creators of the future, we discussed what we might expect from the Rio +20. Two
phrases came to my mind, and I believe they are increasingly true. One: “Rio +20 should be the occasion when, finally, we will realize that
the world is more than just the sum of countries.”The implications are enormous, and require a true reinvention of the systems of political
and social organization. The logic of nation-states assumes a world fragmented into impervious territories, with controllable frontiers.
Nothing is more incongruous with the reality that we are already experiencing and that becomes more pronounced every day. This finding,
plus recognition of the existing immense technological and social possibilities gives rise to the other phrase: “what is at stake at the Rio +20
is the creation of the future-now.” That is, we speak of a future that is already among us, struggling to come to light. But to create the
future, we have to let it be born. And the delivery has to be now.
Scene 3: The everyday routine reveals that even our most mundane decisions have a built-in expectation of future, often unconscious. There
is an expectation of the future that governs our decisions in the present. In the current collective imaginary – in the news, movies, books, art
– prevails the outlook of an apocalyptic and not very remote future. That is what we are going to create if we do not immediately strengthen
the outlook of the desirable future we already feel pulsating.
Scene 4: A year and a half after the first scene, Lala gives me a call: she had invested in the idea, cultivated the proposal to share desirable
futures. And there was a book (this one you are reading), ready to be launched at the Rio +20. She invited me to help disseminating it. Of
course I accepted, along with colleagues from the Vitae Civilis and many more who, like us, know that it is possible to create the future.
After all, we do this every day, and have done so for many years. Welcome to Lala, with her enthusiasm and persistence. Welcome to you,
readers who will share foresights and join us in the effort of this delivery and the creation of our desired future. Here and now.
Aron Belinky, Instituto Vitae Civilis3
Coordinator of International Processes
1
http://www1.ethos.org.br/EthosWeb/pt/4732/servicos_do_portal/noticias/itens/forum_global_pela_sustentabilidade_sera_lancado_no_rio_em_2011_.aspx
2
Respectively: Núcleo de Estdos do Futuro, Fundación Avina, General Sub Secretary of the UN
3
http://vitaecivilis.org/
Dedicated to all those who create and believe in desirable
futures. Your dreams fertilized the future that is being
gestated in this world pregnant with another world.
To all those who participated in Crie Futuros and, by doing so, granted us the non-commercial use of their futures, thank you for your trust and inspiration.
To professional artists who ceded their illustrations (fantastic!) especially to Claude Giordano for the emblematic cover image.
If any image is not credited, we apologize and reiterate our good faith – it is because the contact could not be found.
Our process is collaborative and made possible thanks to the commitment of people and institutions, which we thank. Learn more at the end of the book.
Our collection is wiki: it allows you to get to know, edit, and supplement the futures with texts/ pictures/ videos in www.criefuturos.com
Disclaimer:
The entire content of this book is the sole responsibility of the author, who thanks the supporters and exempts them of any responsibility for the text or images herein.
To get this book, visit www.criefuturos.com . The proceeds from the eventual sale of this publication will be reverted to the maintenance of the Crie Futuros movement.
TAGS: future of the past – inspiration – happiness –
consumption – susteinability – cooperation –
collective imaginary – change of mentality – wealth
– processes – networks – another posible world –
collaborative models – participation – abundancy
– creative economy – interdependence – trust
1
Why, What for, How
“The future is the outcome of dreams from the past and choices of the present.”
Crie Futuros
10
D E S I R AB LE N EW WOR LD
Create desirable futures – why? Looking at the future of the past it is
quite obvious that much of what exists
today has been previously dreamed of:
since the late nineteenth century we
find many images of information and
communication technologies such as
video conferencing, notebooks, wireless
technology. We can also see gigantic cities filled with more and more cars,
drive-thrus, fast food, robotic surgery,
solar heating.1
These things inspired and engaged
those who grew up looking at them to
turn dreams into reality. These images
influenced choices of lifestyle, political
and investment priorities, technological
innovation. One can also note what
kind of future was wished for – and
thus created. The ubiquity of cars, in all
possible shapes; consumerism, synonymous to happiness; families and individuals cooped up in their homes, content
1
See more at www.paleofuture.com and
www.criefuturos.com.
to be set apart from the external world;
highly sophisticated and expensive artifacts of war. Images that nurtured our
Remote chat by video; fax or printer; use of wireless
technology; global cities. Frank R. Paul, USA, 1921.
Life in the Year 2000: Telephone call with video.
And already wanting to talk with China.
French National Library, 1912.
relationship with energy, consumption,
sustainability, cooperation, rapport with
our fellowmen.
Nevertheless, the message is clear:
how we visualize the future influences
its creation. Today’s choices design the
world of tomorrow. By changing the
choices, we can change tomorrow. So,
what should we choose? How to
choose? Do we have visions of desirable
futures to guide our choices and inspire
innovation? Futurist Peter Drucker says:
“The best way to predict the future is
to create it”.
However, since the sixties the most
common images of the future have
been somber, grim and vague. Images
of violence, disaster, threats. Today, the
(few!!) images of the future, found
mainly in video games and science fiction, frighten rather than motivate.
It is necessary to dream and spread
images and ideas of desirable futures
that can inspire innovation and point
out choices, especially in the direction
of the change of models that is needed
for a better and feasible world. Crie Futuros endeavors to fertilize the collec-
W hy, W hat for , H ow
tive imagination by creating seeds of
the future and preparing the ground so
that urgent changes of mentality and
behavior may take place.
We believe that to break with models and generate profound innovation,
one must be freed from the search for
plausible futures, to reach out for the
desirable, the unlikely, but not impossible. Always dare to look at the world
and at what we want to change, and
think “Why not?”. It seems utopian, but
the work of hundreds of people and institutions (such as the Ashoka2 social entrepreneurs) has shown that the impossible is possible. For example, low
income community neighborhoods that
have built parks and daycare facilities
without money and in two days3!
Visualizing futures is also important
because sustainability comes from the
harmonious choices we make in the present. If we are not attuned to the future
we always risk wasting large amounts of
time, resources and opportunities mak2See www.ashoka.org and www.ashoka.org.br
3See www.institutoelos.com.br.
ing choices and devising policies based
upon perspectives and priorities that do
not make sense in the long run. For ex-
Life in the year 2000. Education as an assembly line ...
Bibliothèque Nationale de France. France, 1889.
Designed for 2889, this identical towers where an entire
city can live, already exist. USA, 1933.
11
ample, city planners and futurists of the
late nineteenth century London believed
the city would continue to be powered
by horses as it grew. So, one of the greatest challenges was what to do with all
the horse manure? Diapers? But then,
how to get rid of them and their contents? A lot of energy was spent on these
questions, but little did they know that
in less than thirty years, the issue would
no longer make sense, since horses were
replaced by cars. This metaphor highlights how many of our concerns and
policies might be “horse diapers” and refer to issues that soon will have no meaning, unless we make an effort to visualize
different futures.
Measuring the wealth of people
and nations only by the amount of money generated; investing almost everything in infrastructure, i.e. hardware,
and almost nothing in intelligence and
processes, i.e. software, (and no hardware works without software...)4, in processes (such as bureaucracy) and struc4
Tragic examples are budgets of what is planned for
the World Cup and Olympic Games in Brazil even by the
BID. (www.copa2014.gov.br/tags/bid).
12
tures (like cities) that cause huge losses
of the most precious, scarce, and nonrenewable resource we have: Time. These
may well be some of the “horse diapers”
that should be rethought in our designing of sustainable lifestyles.
Eduardo Galeno5 says: “This is a world
pregnant with another world.” A
phrase that best translates what we
have been saying for many years using the image in the book cover: sus-
Our starting point
“We can’t solve problems by using
the same kind of thinking we used
when we created them.”
Albert Einstein
“Desirable New World” was constructed based upon hundreds of futures created between 2008 and 2012, in eight
countries, by people belonging to dozens of networks and of all ages and occupations. Simple, diverse, and light
language without any technical pretention connecting the dots to reveal the
full picture of these desired lifestyles.
Our feeling is that they make visible some traits of this “other possible world” that is being engendered.
tainability will not come to be just by
tweaking the old models. We are talking about something new.
Our contribution to this “gestation” is the result of extensive work, a
creative and futurist mix that converges upon a vision of sustainability based
on creative economy and collaborative
models. This work was structured
through activities involving6 a wide variety of stakeholders: the cultural sector, corporations, the third sector, local
governments and development institutions, international cooperation, collaborative networks.
The concepts and tools we developed along this path guided us on how
to bring together the futures and design sustainable ways of life. We are
“synthesizers”: in quest of synthetic
ways that might be applied in various
domains; “howists”: interested in the
“how to”; and “hubs”: trying to unite
languages, sectors, and fields of action.
Tableaux Vivants. Claude Giordano, Paris, Nineties.
5
During the movements of true democracy
in Spain in 2011...
6
Further information, articles and videos in the site
www.laladeheinzelin.com
If you prefer, go straight to the futures,
because what follows is rather technical
and we do hope that you will enjoy
reading this.
Sustainability how? Three infinites...
Sustainability? How, if the Earth is only
one and its resources are finite and
scarce? Creative economy might be a
solution.
We are experiencing the passing
of centuries in which society, economics, and politics were organized around
material resources such as land, gold,
or oil, tangibles and, therefore, finite
and consumed upon use. This finitude
creates an economy of scarcity, based
on competitive models. However, intangible resources such as culture,
knowledge, and experience are infinite and multiply with use. They may
stand for an economy of abundance
relying on models of collaboration.
In a simplified way, we might say
that the traditional economy hinges
on tangible resources: environmental/
structural and financial capital that being scarce and finite resulted in unsustainable models. Conversely, Creative
Economy is based on intangible resources: cultural capital and social capital which, incidentally, are abundant
in “poor” countries. This economy
rests upon cultural diversity, knowledge, ICT, and creativity that enable
the eventual achievement, not only of
economic, but social, cultural and environmental results as well. That is to
say, sustainable.
Sustainability may be possible,
since we are talking about three infinites! One infinite leveraging the
other... The first is that of intangible
assets, which not only cannot be depleted, but are renewed and multiplied
with use, instead. This alone should
turn creative economy into a strategic
priority at a time when the major predicament is how to improve quality of
life and generate income since the
planet is just one, finite. But if the
13
toms of Earth are finite, the bits of the
a
new technologies constitute our second infinite. With them we can create
many virtual worlds and endless ways
to empower, connect, recreate and interact. And that creates our third
infinite: the infinite ways in which the
network society is organized, produces,
reinvents. And all the new ways of producing and undertaking derive from
these associations, which are summarized in the word “collaborative”. The
examples are many: new models to produce, distribute, and teach like Circuito
Fora do Eixo7; the hundreds of crowdfunding8 – collaborative funding sites;
Mesh9 businesses that propose an economy of sharing; the fabulous resource
known as “cognitive surplus”10, the col7
A Circuit that links more than one hundred clusters
of creation now spreading out to other countries of
America, that innovates in all forms of management http://
foradoeixo.org.br/
8
Hundreds of sites, and all very recent
9
See the book Mesh, by Lisa Gansky or the site
http://meshing.it/
10
Concept proposed by Clay Shirky,
http://www.shirky.com/
14
laborative production of knowledge
which bears fruit like Wikipedia.
Current times are fascinating because each of these “infinites” activates the other, allows it to be strengthened, turning potential into reality. Of
course, infinite 1, that of intangible resources (culture, knowledge, creativity,
experiences), has always existed. But
the new technologies of infinite 2 have
created associations with other sectors
and partners that allow this creative
potential to become real, visible and
accessible, thus “tangibilizing the intangible.” The combination of these
two infinites generates the third one,
with new ways of organizing people,
relationships, and businesses, that is,
the “network society”.
But for these infinites to come together “activators” are required: elements that act as “modems” or catalysts, integrating sectors and languages
and leading to the convergence needed for a systemic action. If we dare to
abandon many of the models (known
and comfortable, albeit wrong) of the
20th century and make the right
choices, this “trio of infinites” can
bring prosperity and harmony. We use
this outline for the Desirable New
World, sustainable (and possible...).
For all this to happen, which
would be some of our starting points?
Lending a helping
hand to the future The Crie Futuros logo11 symbolizes a
hand because we want to “lend the future a helping hand.” To achieve this
we identified some principles that will
be the guidelines in this book.
one new operational “system”:
cultural change. Change
mentalities to
change habits
“Desirable New World” is
not a technical book, but an
inspirational one. We would
like to motivate, entertain
11
www.criefuturos.com
and collaborate to change the culture
towards sustainability.
Our starting point is based upon
some assumptions:
BB Sustainability is only possible through a
change in culture, mentality, desires, outlook of the world and the future. Are we
trying to change habits without changing
mentalities?
BB “Sustainable” is not merely an adjective
but a new “operational system” that from
now on will guide actions in all domains of
life. Just as slavery is inconceivable today, in
the near future it will be inconceivable that
any aspect of life is not sustainable ...
BB The word “sustainability” gives us a
feeling of guilt, not enthusiasm – we
“know” that sustainability is essential but
we “sense” it something that may be
restrictive, technical and tedious. Sustainability is the possibility of re-designing the
world, it fosters a better quality of life, and
it is interesting and daring too.
BB The approach to sustainability must be
systemic because the ecosystem we live in
is socio-environmental, signaling the interdependence between the tangible of economics and environment and the intangible
of society and culture. Limiting sustainability to environmental solutions entails more
than a risk; it jeopardizes what might be
the solution.
BB It is a major cultural change to perceive
that a solution for sustainability are the
intangible assets: creativity, cultural diversity,
knowledge, experience, care and human
values. These are abundant resources that
renew themselves and multiply with use.
TWO equivalent coordinates:
tangible / structural and
intangible / processual
“Contemporary civilization
experiences the explosive
combination of rapid technological evolution and slow
ethical and social evolution”12
The practice of considering an
equivalence and interdependence between tangible / hardware / structure
or intangible / software / process, helps
to understand how and where we can
be more sustainable. In most cases,
12
Ricardo Abramovay, “Folha de São Paulo,” 03/27/
2012 http://radarrio20.org.br/index.php?r=site/
view&id=233404
policies and investments focus on
hardware / structure, as if their existence would suffice to generate software / processes. The upshot is always
a huge waste, because hardware will
not work without software... Example:
the Olympics and the World Cup, in
Brazil. Almost everything that is being
undertaken is “hardware”, structure –
such as stadiums or highways. Whereas
little is underway in “software”: management, entrepreneurship. We make
products, but do not provide the process for making them visible and workable. We invest more in infrastructure
than in education, we change government priorities without bothering to
change the laws and regulations that
enforce them.
Another interesting thing is that
the same structure / hardware can accommodate various processes / software, that is to say, the same form can
have several different functions. This
was our rationale: start with what already exists today and think of new
functions. After all, this is what creativity and innovation are all about.
15
We further believe that there is always equivalence between the tangible
and intangible, and we can always seek
the “translation” of one into the other.
Examples: it would be sustainable to
manage both the tangible assets (biodiversity, natural resources) and intangible assets (cultural diversity human and
social resources) in a clean and renewable way. Those who emit large
amounts of carbon can pay credits to
offset emissions. We take care not to
waste tangible energy, but ignore the
expenditure of intangible energy such
as “distrust cost”: faulty environments
and processes like most of the bureaucratic procedures, resulting in an enormous waste of time, money, knowledge. Furthermore, we give heed to
natural resources, tangible, but neglect
the scarcest resource of all, time, which
in fact is not renewable.
“Desirable New World” was designed intending to optimize time and
find other functions (processes / software) for the forms (structures / hardware) that already exist. When playing at re-inventing these forms, it is
16
amazing to see how much could be
done with little effort and few resources. Sustainable.
TRhree points in time:
past, present and future
Traditional economics no
longer takes into account13
that products or processes
only exist because of heritage
received from the past – and that goes
for assets and tangible natural resources
(such as oil or water) as well as for the
intangibles (such as knowledge and
practices). Any process or product leaves
a legacy for the future, be it positive or
negative, tangible (such as solid waste)
or intangible (such as knowledge to be
systematized). To be sustainable is to
make the appropriate choice concerning resources received from the past and
the legacy for the future. Indeed, our
outlook has been immediatist, shorttermed, focused only on the present.
To think about Time is to appreciate the past, since there are products
13
As stressed by the economist José Eli da Veiga
www.zeeli.pro.br
and processes that must be maintained
simply because they are already good
enough. In this book we deal a lot with
“oldiety”, not only with novelty…
Looking back we are bewildered
by barbarities such as the Inquisition or
astonished to find out that bathing was
considered bad for health. To think
about Time is to visualize the present as
if we were in the future because then
we become aware of the barbarities of
the present. Consider the fattening
breakfasts in hotels or the disasters
triggered by misfortunes of the financial market. This book recreates or
eliminates quite a few barbarities, and
also points out that until recently there
were no things that, off and on, we
judge as irrevocable such as the single
currency system or advertising.
FOUR dimensions of
sustainability in the
processes, values
and outcome:
environmental,
economic, social
and cultural
The tangible aspect of our ecosystem
encompasses the environmental dimension – both natural and technological
and the economic dimension – monetary and solidary. The intangible aspect
entails the socio-political dimension
and the symbolic -cultural. Interestingly, the latter is still barely visible, although it is where the – abundant and
renewable – resources that can provide
the solution for sustainability are
found: intangible assets like knowledge, creativity, and culture.
We speak about human capital, intellectual capital, social capital, cultural
capital, environmental capital, but still
do not acknowledge that “value” may
mean much more than the economics.
For example, reputation (one of the few
things that cannot be copied) tends to
be one of the most important values.
Assets refer not solely to economics, such as investment, funding, markets, exchanges, bank of hours, complementary currencies. Moreover, assets
can be found in the socio-political dimension: vested rights, networks, social
fabric, institutions, articulation, and
leaderships coordinated action. Assets
may be in the cultural-symbolic dimension: as knowledge and practices, languages of arts, creativity, history, spirituality, human values. And environmental
assets involve more than the natural environment – biodiversity, raw materials,
our body and health, it involves also the
technological environment – spaces, facilities and equipment.
We propose Sustainability 4D+
considering that products and processes,
to be effective and sustainable, must be
systemic and always encompass these
four dimensions in their make up and
forms of evaluation. This probably will
require development of indicators and
four-dimensional measurements (4D+)
of wealth, resources and results. We
further noticed that, just as the water
17
changes state, a “change of state” occurs in the nature of Value. Just as it is
impossible to understand the water cycle by studying only the liquid state, we
realize that this is also true in relation
to Value. For instance, we invest financial capital in human capital and thus
generate technological capital which in
turn can produce environmental capital
and so on.
Perhaps in the short term we will
have a 4D+ Economy, where the assets of
nations, institutions and individuals are
the sum of resources and results in tangible (environmental and economic) and
intangible (socio – political, and symbolic- cultural) dimensions. This is the desirable future, because it would change negotiation levels, decision making, the
definition of priorities and policies.
Our “Desirable New World” already operates with this multidimensional rationale: projects, processes,
policies are always aimed at results 4D+.
The economy has been re-invented and
gained size and currencies. The ways to
assess and measure are also 4D +, since
measuring life, sustainability and abun-
18
dance using only available measuring
units is like trying to measure liters
with a ruler. Impossible.
FIVE “hows” of
sustainability: care,
trust, potencies, flow
and the collaborative
CARE is the purpose
The 199814 What the World
Wants project, shows that to solve
most (yes! almost everything!) of mankind’s problems it would be enough to
invest for ten years, only thirty percent
of what the world spends on armaments. More than ten years have gone
by, the choice for the common good
has not been made and spending on
weapons has doubled. The futurist
Buckminster Fuller says “Either war is
obsolete, or men are”. Why do we
continue to make foolish choices?
14
What the World Wants, see the table showing this
relation and the proposal in http://www.unesco.org/
education/tlsf/mods/theme_a/interact/www.worldgame.
org/wwwproject/index.shtml
The historian Riane Eisler15 proposes a reinterpretation of our history
from two models: one of Domination –
where the focus is on death, and one of
Partnership – and is focused on supporting life. It does make sense doesn’t
it? For millennia we have lived in the
culture of domination: fear moves the
economy and society, evolutionary theories are based on the idea of struggle,
survival of the fittest, that which is
linked to the human and socio-cultural
is not valued; religions preach that the
best of life is... after death!
The collaborative model is increasingly present, thanks to the network
society, and will probably be the future (or we shall have no future...).
Therefore, care should guide choices,
priorities and policies in all areas. For
each thing, design, law, investment,
relation, attitude, ask the question:
what does it take care of? The greater
the care, the more worthy it is of our
choice, since care is inherently sustainable and has a long-term outlook.
15
http://www.rianeeisler.com/
Care encompasses many activities
of the future: to take care not only of
Nature but of people, cities, knowledge, practices, time, relations, lifestyles, resources 4D+. There will be
fewer jobs in the future, but there will
be plenty of work in “taking care”
therefore it should become a priority
in national policies16. Iceland’s rapid recovery after the 2008 crisis is an example of the focus on care, sustainability,
creative economy and not by chance
the country is managed by women17.
In “Desirable New World” the selected futures are linked to care and oriented by affection: we affect and are affected. As pointed out by Leonardo Boff
we should consider more the emotional
intelligence, since it is the most evolved,
occurring only in mammals18.
16
One of the proposals by Ladislau Dowbor;
Carlos Lopes and Ignacy Sachs in the book
http://criseoportunidade.wordpress.comin
17
One of many articles on the topic. Note they chose
not to save banks but to invest in people
http://internacional.elpais.com/internacional/2012/03/09/
actualidad/1331323885_752952.html
18
This is one of his texts that mentions the subject
http://www.mndh.org.br/index2.php?
option=com_content&do_pdf=1&id=60
TRUSTFUL environments
and processes are the basis
“To be or to being, that is the question...” Paraphrasing Shakespeare we
note that there is a tremendous difference. For instance: Japan is “poor” –
many natural disasters, insufficient land
to grow food for all, severe winters,
while being “rich” – its people have a
good quality of life. Yet, Mozambique
although being “poor” is actually “rich”the country has an abundance of natural resources, cultural diversity, privileged location and climate. Why does
this happen ?
Looking at development processes
it is clear that the capital which is able to
activate others is abundant in Japan and
scarce in Mozambique: the Social Capital
– collective and economic results
achieved through cooperative and trustful social relations; coordinated planning and action; strong institutions; culture of solidarity and citizenship.
And Social Capital depends on
what? Reciprocity and personal, interpersonal and institutional trust. In Japan, people leave their bags to mark
their place in the subway line when they
go to the restroom! The costs of distrust
are enormous, look at how many things
around you are driven by distrust... Can
you imagine the heavy cost of the huge
onerous bureaucracy that tries, with little success, to avoid corruption and instead makes most public bodies in Brazil
unable to execute their annual budgets
and to adequately contract services.
Lack of trust lies behind much of
the disharmony we see in the world, in
many spheres of human life and largely
fueled by mainstream media, whose
prevailing product is fear.
Trust is the basis for processes related to activities whose raw materials
are intangible resources, and we have
seen that these are our pathway for the
future – since intangibles resources
abound and multiply with usage. Tourist experience, creativity, the values of
an enterprise, governance, learning, all
rest upon trust.
Much time, resources, energy,
knowledge, joy are wasted by distrust. It
is unsustainable. The future is netwoven, collaborative, intuitive, and increas-
19
ingly guided by collective common
sense. None of this is possible without
trust. How can one collaborate and connect without trust? Changes nowadays
are so numerous and rapid that increasingly we have to use intuition and common sense as parameters, needless to
say, they also rely on trust.
“Desirable New World” is made by
and for those who trust – themselves,
their fellowmen, their community, a
cause – and realize that there is wisdom
in the collective and that you can live
and operate from it.
Work on existing POTENCIES
is the resource
Engineers who project a highway do not
start from the holes, but from solid
ground. We can add as many holes as
we want and they will always amount to
emptiness... However, our culture operates on the rationale of the hole, of
what is missing and not on what do we
have: that is where assistencialism comes
from, which disempowers and does not
resolve. Normally planning meetings begin with the question: “What do we
20
need?” And not
“What do we
have?”
Might this everlasting feeling of “lacking” – and the resulting
consumerism and waste – not
derive from the fact that we do not visualize what we have and are always
on the half- empty part of the glass?
This feeling is even stronger since we
have not yet learned to “tangibilize
the intangible” and visualize assets
and resources over and above the economic and tangible.
We find that there are abundant
resources if we change the perspective,
no longer work on what is missing but
on potencies, the differentials and
strengths of each person, institution,
community. Recognition and appreciation of what is unique helps identify
Used airplane turned into a children’s
playground. Angela León, 2012.
the 4D+ resources available (social, cultural, environmental and economic).
Then we can see what can be done with
them. To be aware of the potencies further generates trustful environments at
personal and community levels. We
have seen that trust is what fuels social
capital – precisely that which we lack.
The network society increasingly
allows each one to exercise their power
and choice through co-creation and participation. The Transparency Hacker19,
a movement that generates apps to
19
http://thacker.com.br/
make public data operational and visible, works by combining the power of
the “hackers’ for good” abilities plus
the power of public databases, that are
presented as mere lists with no possible
use. Moreover, the definition for “hacking” is interesting: to deeply know the
tools, in order to find new uses and expand their function.
In “Desirable New World” we
“hack” the things we wish to change:
we create new functions for existing
structures. Since, even when they seem
just an amusing flight of fancy, they
point to sustainable routes. Why not??
Fair and accessible FLOW
of resources is the goal
When we train our eyes to visualize potencies we find that there is abundance
and flow is lacking. In Nature there is
health where there is flow. Still water,
rots. Stopped blood, dies. Might we
have a broader and more systemic outlook of sustainability by thinking about
identifying, promoting and regulating
flows? Environmental and financial
tsunamis; hunger or obesity, social and
urban mobility: all flow problems.
Money, knowledge, food, water,
health, culture, affection, clothing,
housing, energy – how much of the
problem is a real lack and how much is
lack of flow?
Abundance is even more evident
when we take into account tangible
and intangible resources and results. To
ensure appreciation and flow, as a kind
of “conversion system“ between dimensions, is another reason why, in a
Desirable New World, there are innovative 4D+ metrics and indicators: environmental, social and cultural as well
as economic.
Awareness of the flows reveals
many of today’s barbarities. The annual energy that the controversial
Belo Monte hydroelectric could generate is equivalent to that wasted by our
power transmission system. The 2010
Census revealed that the number of
vacant houses in Brazil exceeded the
housing shortage, yet the real estate
market continued to expand (another
bubble about to burst?) 20. Does it
make sense that about thirty trillion
dollars committed to bailing out
banks21 in the crisis of 2008 would be
the equivalent of a monthly salary of
U.S. $ 357.00 during one year for the
seven billion inhabitants of this planet? Or to recognize that the “financial
cloud” circulates a capital 75 times
greater than the world GDP?
20
http://www.ecodebate.com.br/2010/12/15/
the Brazilian Census of 2010 shows that the number of
empty houses outstrips the housing deficit.
21
21
Our outlook is optimistic (we are
enthusiasm!)22. As such, we look at the
half-full part of the glass and see that
the data reveals opportunities. “Desirable New World” asserts that it is a privilege to live in this era where, for the first
time in the history of humanity, there
are sufficient resources, knowledge and
people. For this r eason we hope to foster the practice of well thought out and
sensible choices that may allow this
abundance to circulate fairly.
COLLABORATIVE and netwoven
processes are the mechanism
When, in 1987, Riane Eisler proposed
the two aforementioned models of
Domination / centralized and Partnership / distributed, the notion of the “collaborative” or web had not yet surfaced.
However, the typology of networks
translates her thinking quite well.
In the Centralized Model, the
movement goes from a few to many:
all that is “mass” – media, culture, consumption, tourism, event; “big” – cities,
See also http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/
newsbysector/banksandfinance/6722123/Bailing-out-the-
22
banks-cost-5500-per-family.html
and coordinates Crie Futuros.
Enthusiasmo Cultural launched
22
corporations, markets, debt, “mono” –
culture, theism, currency, “concentrated”
– decision making, income, power, resources, knowledge. A hierarchical
model, suffice to think of the meaning
of the word “real” and that we experience “reality”- there is no”peoplety” –
what is personal does not matter nor is
it visible. Technologies are linked to
tangible / structural, they spin off from
war – or are war derived, such as the
internet or games. We impose our outlook on nature, translating it into
struggle, competition, and survival of
the fittest. Our motto for millennia has
been “the conquest of space”, which
entails the notion of possessing.
In the Collaborative Model, the
movement goes from many to many:
that of “mass” is replaced by the “diverse”, characterizing and qualifying all
aspects of life: the
“big” is replaced
by diversity of small and mediumsized23; everything is “Multi and Trans”
– disciplinary, sectoral, cultural, frontier.
Decision making, income, power, resources and knowledge are shared. In
this model we are netweaving, are coauthors, and therefore co-responsible.
Will the virtual world finally contribute
to “peoplety”, by making the personal
visible and important? The technologies
are linked to the intangible / processual,
they are socio-cultural technologies arising from supporting life. We learn from
nature, a success case for over four billion years, and began to work with design of ideas and processes based on
biomimicry. Collaborative models are
based on use and enjoyment and not
on possession – do we need to have
things or to use things? And our motto
now for the future is “the conquest of
time”, since we won the space, but lost
the time, this scarce and not renewable resource, the key to all the best
that life can bring.
23
Centralized model,
from a few to many.
Collaborative model,
from many to many.
How to gain time? How to ever
gain at all? By collaborating. No enterprise in the world would have enough
resources or personnel to make Wikipedia, with all its entries and languages –
possible only by collaboration. Calculations show that a hundred million hours
were required. This seems quite a lot,
but it is the number of hours spent
watching television commercials, in one
weekend, in the USA alone24!! Each year
the world watches a trillion hours of TV.
Can you imagine all the things we could
do collaboratively, profiting from this
free time and acquired knowledge?
This book was also made in a collaborative way and the set of futures
Note that big corporations generate the largest
parcel of the GDP, while the SME generate the majority
24
of jobs.
in Culture of Participation
Calculations by MIT and Clay Shirky
that inspires it – our wikifuturos25, reveals that the desire of people is to
make the best use of their time, as well
as to socialize and share.
“Desirable New World” is the one
in which the mix, the middle way, the
resultant are sought. Clinging to polarization is always a risk and perhaps the
best model is collaboration: a little of
each of the above models, as represented in the rhizome26.
Rhizome.
25
www.criefuturos.com , with futures in the macro
themes of this book
26
Why don't we change the world? The idea of Crie Futuros27 was born on
January 1st 2007, during a mix of personal crisis (I asked myself “how do I
desire to live?” And noticed that I
didn’t know, I only knew how I had to
live) and the effect of having read
Massive Change, by the designer of
ideas Bruce Mau – a collection of information on technologies and people
who participate in redesigning the
world. With these issues in mind, and
preparing a lecture on the sixties, I decided to begin one hundred years earlier – to show how everything converged to a major leap of awareness
and behavior that supposedly would
follow the effervescent events of the
sixties and seventies. The outcome of
this mix of a new year, massive change
and the sixties brought up the same
old question: if we have resources,
knowledge and people to do so, why
Model Inspired in Nature, proposed by Gilles
elements does not follow lines of hierarchical
subordination and any element can supervene in the other.
don’t we change the world? Why not?
Do we still have a dream28?
The scientists, winners of the Blue
Planet Prize, a sort of Nobel Prize for
the Environment that has existed since
the Rio Earth Summit, begin their text
for the Rio + 2029, reasserting that, yes,
they have a dream. Their dream questions the myth of eternal growth and
the view that “the green economy will
be able to compatibilize the increasing
size of the economic system, with the
limited resources of ecosystems.”30
The green economy alone may not
succeed in becoming a solution for sustainability. However, “Desirable New
World” believes that creative economy,
multidimensional wealth and collaboration are essential keys to make this
possible, so that we can design – and
live – the better world we desire. Maybe we have not yet changed the world
28
The emblematic phrase by Martin Luther King:
I have a dream
29
http://www.af-info.or.jp/en/bpplaureates/
doc/2012jp_fp_en.pdf
Deleuze and Félix Guattari where the organization of
30
27
Create Futures
23
http://radarrio20.org.br/index.php?r=site/
view&id=233404
24
because we think it is impossible! Our
dream is that the futures we explore
next, created between 2008 and 201231
and often based on currently existing
practices, may sway, inspire, motivate
and point the ways towards innovations and “oldieties.”
and to enhance the logic and assumptions
that we propose.
The futures from our collection, text or
design, appear in their original wording,
The division of topics is didactic in the
next chapters to facilitate the organization
and futures research. Of course, in
everyday life everything is mixed. The
themes that are presented in this work (a
very small part of what would be possible
to address ...) are those most recurring or
related to the axes that guide this book:
sustainability achieved through the
creative economy, new technologies and
collaborative models. And of course, the
change of mindset that this requires. Some
things are repeated in the chapters, both
to allow them to be read independently
31
It must be highlighted that the lifestyles portrayed
mirror the groups that created them. There is a great
diversity of people but results still disclose a predominantly
urban, Ibero-American, young and middle class outlook.
The arrival of the Year 2000. AlberT Robida, France,1882.
in boxes, or are woven into my text. Our
guests also have their boxes. And the
delicate illustrations by Angela Leon were
made especially for the book.
A dialogue in the Future
Pichi de Benedictis, Rosário, Argentina, 2008
Cultural manager, musician, photographer, professor, creator of the project Rosário Creative
City / Franja Joven
So, this is what I could remember from a dialogue in the future, between
a male nurse and a millionaire creator of fantasy characters, (let’s say Walt
Disney) who wakes up from a cryogenic dream. That is why I have to warn you
that not everything I could remember may be interesting or understandable for
21st Century people like us. Just imagine the disturbed condition of a man who
has been unconscious for centuries. However, maybe it is better like this, with no
certainties so as not to exclude the possibility that the future may surprise us.
Still a bit giddy and trembling from cold, Mr. Disney asked:
— Is there only one kind of government?
— No, there are thousands, and people change them according to their
interests.
— And what happened with the State?
— It belongs to everyone. It started to belong to all when the bids failed.
— What do you mean the bids?
— Well, when the system of government by parties failed, for a long time people elected companies to manage cities, but that also didn’t work well. Soon
they tried to make computers able to issue guidelines to manage the cities, but
that didn’t work out either. So finally we decided to do it by ourselves.
— In the end are all men equal?
— No, they are all different, nobody wants to look like the other.
— Have religions come to an end?
— No, there are hundreds of religions.
25
— So people believe in God?
—The people believe. That’s what matters. Some, certainly, in gods.
— Do people live forever?
— No, for about 100 years, according to the decision of each one.
— What do you mean, each one?
— The fact is, each one decides how to live. People choose if they want to eat
well or poorly, we cannot force anybody. Some like to take risks, I don’t know,
they choose how to live, and how to die.
— That means that there are no problems?
— Oh! Yes sir, fortunately there are many problems. What would happen to us
without problems? For sure we would end up killing one another. We love to
discuss passionately about everything, so that when we have finished the discussion, the beer seem to taste even better.
Since he didn’t catch on clearly what was happening on the Earth, Mr. Disney
decided to by-pass the issue by asking?
— Are there people living on Mars?
— Mr. Disney, why should we go and live in such a dark, far away place, if here
we have available all the sun, clean air to breathe deeply and rivers full of transparent water?
— Are you saying that the Earth is not a desert or a huge glacier?
— According to what I read, the only difference between your time and ours is
that now desert and glaciers are just places for tourists, maybe like your fake
parks in Florida were at that time. We have a lot of free time to go from one
place to another and we love the mountains, the rivers, to be with different
people and taste their food...
— Did they set off the atomic bomb?
— Sir, what was the atomic bomb?
— Please don’t mind my question, it’s because we are by ourselves, do women
exist?
26
D E S E JÁV EL MU N D O N O V O
— How can one imagine any kind of life without women!
— Oh! So matrimony still exists?
— I don’t know what matrimony means.
— Tell me all about robots and machines, I am dying of curiosity.
— Don’t do that Mr. Disney, right now when you are just resuscitated, you are
going to die again? Look, I don’t know what a robot is, I’m sorry to disappoint
you. And about the machines, I must tell you that many have been built in the
last years, but just a few have been useful , for instance the machine that shows
us just like we are.
— Oh! That already existed, it’s called X-Ray.
— No sir, you do not understand understand: just as you are! I believe that at
the time they used to call it therapy or psychoanalysis, but they did it without
machines and it didn´t bring about the expected result. Let me go on.
The machine to exterminate all machines was invented so that their tasks could
be carried out by men; the machine to clean space residues that blotted out the
stars; the machine that recycled human wastes and that which purifies the water of our homes to be clean when it reached the rivers. I was going to tell you
that they also invented water fueled cars, but I remembered in time that they
were created in the 20th Century, although nobody is able to explain why they
didn´t use them then.
— With so few machines you must be very busy. How many hours a day do
people work?
— Look, only 6 hours during half of the year.
— Only half of the year? And what do they do the rest of the time?
— They get to know places, help those in need, educate, inform. Come together
with other people to think about how to live better. I believe that now they are
busier living than surviving.
— Tell me about the land, what do they plant?
— At what time? Where, Mr. Disney? One plants what one needs to live. Your
questions are quite absurd! The people leave an empty space in their field to
grow what the others need.
— Are there towns and cities?
— Of course there are. And each town has its own festivity, distinct from all
other festivals; each place has its own food, different from all the other foods,
each town has its own product different from all the other products, and many
products are required by all towns.
All together we make up the whole.
Let us not change the risk of dying from hanger,
for the risk of dying from tediousness.
Rogério, Rio de Janeiro, 2011.
TAGS:
TAGS: assessment – tangible
and intangible assets – credit – human value
stock exchange – economics – creative economy – green economy –
management – taxes – indicators – leisure – sustainable measures –
metrics – multidimensional – absolute and relative values
x
2
Gain,
capítulo
Valuate, Negotiate
“In economics, it is easy to explain the past. Easier still is to predict the future.
Difficult to understand is the present.”
“Frase”
Joelmir Beting
Autor
28
Work to live,
or live to work?
“To earn a living” was a curious expression used until a few decades ago, before it became clear that Time is more
valuable and that life is already earned!
It is up to us to make the most of it …
“Earn” referred to receiving a single
type of currency in exchange for goods,
or services rendered. “Living” referred
to paying expenses at the end of the
month, without any kind of task-sharing
or exchange for hours of work/skills, also
paid for in the same single currency. This
situation, where people lived more to
work than worked to live, was aggravated by the by now well-studied distortion
that led to the Great Bubble of 2013:
“earning” had nothing to do with life,
property, or labor, but instead with the
issuance of single currencies or financial
speculation. Despite the various crises
that preceded that of 20131, it took
1
If indeed about US$30 trillions were invested to save
quite some time for the population to
clearly realize these mechanisms and
their consequences. Already in the middle of the last century, the economist
John Kenneth Galbraith2 said: “The process by which money is created is so simple that the mind rejects it.”
An example: in 2010, a specialized
media vehicle 3, stated: “One of the
biggest risks to the world’s financial
health is the $1.2 quadrillion derivatives market”. Unfortunately, our researchers have not found a clear description of what was traded in these
markets, nor could they achieve to understand what that meant, since this
value was equivalent to approximately
20 times the global GDP (GDP was the
old way of measuring the wealth of
“nations”- management units that today would correspond to our MSEE –
Macro Socio- Environmental Ecosystem), a sum that divided by the
number of inhabitants of the planet,
2
http://www.chrismartenson.com/crashcourse
corresponds to one year of a monthly of more than
3
http://www.dailyfinance.com/2010/06/09/
US$400, per inhabitant of the world.
risk-quadrillion-derivatives-market-gdp/
enterprises of the financial system in 2008/2009 this
Science and Invention – the invention is a Sleep
Eliminator, which allows user to live to work!!!
USA, 1923.
G ain , Valuate , N egotiate
would result in US$171,429 per person,
or a one year’s monthly salary of
US$14,285 per earthling.
And what would true wealth be?
We saw the spreading of the notion of
wealth as “Abundance that does not
generate scarcity 4”. A millionaire’s
wealth could then be abundant in
money, but scarce in time or freedom; a
job could warrant abundant security
and lack of autonomy; an enterprise
could generate abundant dividends for
shareholders and scarce benefits for its
community; or even, an international
expert could have abundant experience
and scarce connections.
The major instability of the first
twenty years of this century led to profound and rapid change. In the twenties, we witnessed a re-design of virtually all areas of life, with a wide scope,
thanks to the process of technology
sharing and dissemination – both the
“hard” tangibles and the “soft” intangibles. In the thirties, these new struc4
Metariqueza: concept devised in 2008 by Roberto
Adami Tranjan http://www.leituracorporativa.com.br/open.
php?pk=34&fk=63&id_ses=4&canal=16
tures were monitored and adjusted by
society through DDCG: Direct Digital
Co-Governance. In June of this year, a
couple of historians presented a thesis
at the Rio + 50, showing that the DDCG
was made possible when global and
unrestricted access to ICTs resulted in
better education, more transparent
procedures and, therefore, better ability to choose and decide on the part of
the population. This also led, in recent
decades, to the breaking of a historical
pattern that they perceived, and nicknamed “crab dance”. It was a pattern
of advance and retreat that marked almost rhythmically the last decades of
the 20th and early 21st centuries – see,
for example, the switching between
progressive and conservative governments, which were curiously called
“right” and “left”. That just before the
extinction of the “parties” government
system, since they had become quite indistinct in their purposes.
HSE: Human Stock Exchange
Based on the following indexes:
1 – Index of Talent Expression;
2 – Index of Transparency / Telepathy
3 – Index of Emotional Health or Playfulness;
4 – Index of Material Detachment or Material
Balance;
5 – Index of Affective Bonding;
6 –Index of Reduced Extraction
7 – Index of Beauty;
8 – Index of Kindness
Gabriel, Sonia Bosco, Camila Aragon, Elen
Igershemer, Monica Cristina Ladim, Woody,
Laura, Helen Rose, Renata Proetti, Leatrice
Cristina Affonso, Marilena Martins, Brazil, 2009.
29
30
MULTI DIMENSIONAL WEALTH INDEX,
A DESIRABLE FUTURE1
The exercise below was created in November 2008,
São Paulo, during the Global Latin America Forum, an
initiative started by the BAWB – Business as Agent of
World Benefit. After applying the Appreciative Investigation Method the following step by step scenario
was built for 2020.
Aspirational Assertion: News in 2020
“The European Union, the last economic block to
adopt the Multidimensional Wealth Index (MWI),
consolidates the model developed by LAU – Latin
American Union, and created based on the global
economic crisis of 2008.”
Both the set of indicators as well as the new
currencies of the MWI allow the balance in the management of the Integral Sustainability Quadripod:
the economic, environmental, social and c ultural development, measured by means of quantitative and
qualitative metrics. The new model in force, which
prioritizes human values and intangible resources
(knowledge, creativity and culture), achieves its objective of generating public and p rivate policies
based on the concept of interdependence and focused on quality of life for mankind on the planet.
1
Know more about the Global Latin America Forum
in http://www.compendiosustentabilidade.com.br/
compendiodeindicadores/praticas/default.
asp?paginaID=27&conteudoID=345
From the results of 2017 in Africa, we can state that
some vectors of this success were multi-sectoral management, interdisciplinary education, collaborative
production, networking and community empowerment. Today we can state the redefinition of wealth as
“abundance that does not generate scarcity” is a reality.
B)The set of wealth indicators, guided by the concept of interdependence and human values, which,
when encompassing the quadripod dimensions of Integral Sustainability, promote balance between the
material, tangible and the intangible aiming at the
quality of life.
If anything was possible, we project:
MULTIDIMENSIONAL WEALTH INDEX:
NEW INDICATORS, CURRENCIES AND FLOWS
C)Legislation and policies that transform and
regulate economic and social flows that will enable
the application of the MWI.
Aspirational Phrase:
“Multidimensional Indicators of wealth
generate Integral Sustainability for humanity
and the planet.”
Involved:
− Multisectoral and Transdisciplinary Task Force to
draft the core of the process, which would then be
developed by a multidisciplinary work group. Axes:
sustainability, innovation, development, cooperation.
− Institutions whose work already approaches the
subject; selecting professionals of a transdisciplinary
profile from education institutions (the environment,
law, commerce, culture, politics, development etc). Includes “practitioners” and “researchers”.
Symbolic maquette made by the group – inspirational
synthesis. Prototype:
Multidimensional Wealth Index includes:
A)Currencies/ metrics related to the quadripod
of Integral Sustainability (environmental, social,
cultural and economic dimensions) that allow
measurement, evaluation, exchange. To measure development and sustainability only by the economic
value is like trying to measure liters with a ruler. Human and cultural capital; social capital, technological
and environmental capital allow that cultural and
natural diversity, solidarity, articulation, traditional
knowledge and practices, creativity, can be integrate
into the equation of sustainable development.
Indicators /Schedule
Short Term:
Preparatory Research:
− Background: experiences and information on the
subject. Ex: Gross Happiness Index, Icons 2003 Conference, Sustainability Indicators of Nations and other
publications, Creative Economy and Sustainable Development, Solidarity Currencies.
− Research of institutions and names to integrate the
initial Task Force (Currencies Module, Indicators
Module, Legislation and Policy Module).
Three months:
− Distribution of preparatory material resulting from
the search.
− First meeting of the Task Force to establish the
foundations of the project and define the groups
working on each module.
Long Term:
Six months:
− Design of communication and mobilization campaign to prepare the ground for change, simultaneous
to the work groups.
− Work Groups in the three modules.
One year:
− First draft presented.
− The campaign for preparation of the ground continues, now conducted by civil society, already mobilized.
Two years:
− Pilot Experiment (e.g. municipality), monitoring,
necessary adjustments.
− Campaign multiplies results and starts preparing
the ground in other ambits.
Three years:
− Implementation of beta version in expanded ambit
(e.g. State)
− Awareness/ mobilization campaign in wider scopes
and abroad.
Economy of Abundance – Systemic
Economy
A substantial part of the Sustainable
4DxT Measures, implemented in the
years after Rio + 20, had to do with redesigning the economic system, because
it became obvious that without these
changes advancement would be impossible. Brazil started to work on the issue,
in 2015, trying not to repeat the indebtedness and strategic mistakes of the
Olympics (2016) in the World Cup
(2014). It was therefore one of the pioneers in designing a systemic, multidimensional economy. Some of the steps
in this process are listed below:
The entrepreneurial universe tends
to be fast and innovative and this was
also what happened at that time of major change. Realizing that their financial
value fluctuated greatly, or dissolved in
successive bubble bursts, enterprises associated with nonprofit organizations
(similar to what currently brings together Social Enterprise 3.0, Co-Laborato-
31
ries, and Organo-Colletives) to develop
more reliable and comprehensive forms
of meausiring wealth. Those were the
early days of today´s 4DxT Economy, a
four-dimensional system, where the
economic dimension began to be called
“financial” (since “economics” means
the set that includes the other three)
and to which were added the values
and metrics of the environmental, sociopolitical and cultural-symbolic dimensions. Today, just adding D/ to the name
is enough to characterize it: volunteering is a D / Financial resource, governance a D / Socio-Political resource; sewer system is a D / Environmental
Resource; and popular festivities are a D
/ Symbolic-Cultural resource.
This process of expansion of economics was also necessary when the
Green Economy and the Creative Economy were considered strategic priorities
for governments and countries. That is
why, we had to “tangibilize”, measure,
evaluate, and create exchange and conversion mechanisms among the various
forms of wealth. In the entrepreneurial
context, a major change in decision
32
the methodologies of
all those in need of
Appropriation: Balance between what is desired and what is achieved.
Coherence: Relationship between theory and practice.
other measurements
Cooperation: Team spirit, solidarity.
other than the quantiCreativity: Innovation, entertainment and leisure.
tative and financial.
Dynamism: The ability to change according to need.
The old NGOs contribEfficiency: Identifying the end and the need.
uted with aspects relatAesthetics: Refers to beauty and refined taste.
ed to the socio-political
Happiness: Feeling good about what we have and who we are.
and symbolic-cultural5
Harmony: Mutual respect.
dimensions; the multiOpportunity: The options open to us.
sectoral processes of
Taking the lead: Taking an active part in making fundamental decisions.
search for solutions for
Transformation: Moving from one state to a better one.
public administration
Indicators used by the CPCD, Center for Popular Culture
and large metropolisand Development, Brazil.
es6, with indicators of
governance and quality of life; the financial7 and entrepremaking took place, since it was possible
to “see” the results and value generated
neurial8 sectors, with methodologies
by intangible-related areas, such as R&D,
for assessing intangibles, to which were
HR, Communication, Social and Environadded existing socio-environmental asmental Responsibility. Previously, they
were considered expenditures and not
income and, later, their centrality as
5
http://www.cpcd.org.br/principal/publ/Guia%20IQP.pdf
generators of key values, such as Repu6
http://www.nossasaopaulo.org.br/observatorio/
tation, Loyalty, Engagement, and Innoindicadores.php
vation, became evident.
7
Search for BNDES, MAE and Eduardo Rath Fingerl
The bases for this transformation of
8
Search for Daniel Domeneghetti
the economy were already outlined in
http://www.domsp.com.br
Project Quality Indicators (PQI)
sessment methodologies 9.Indicators
and metrics were combined, adapted,
and systematized according to the 4D +
rationale, to facilitate comprehension
and application.
Time: The Fifth
Element
However, we were actually able to
move forward in sustainability issues,
when we included the element Time,
transversal to all dimensions. Then we
moved on to the 4DxT Economy, an
Economy of Abundance. Traditional
economics, prevailing until the end of
the ‘10s, had a short-term view, focusing only on the present. It did not take
into account10 that any product or process exists only because of a legacy received from the past and that goes for
both assets and natural resources (such
9
http://footprint.wwf.org.uk/ www.globalreporting.
org; www.cdproject.net; http://epi.yale.edu/
10
See “Mundo em Transe”, by José Eli da Veiga, 2010
as oil or water) as well as for intangibles
(such as knowledge and practices). Just
as any process or product leaves a legacy (positive or negative) for the future,
be it tangible (such as solid waste) or intangible (such as knowledge yet to be
systematized). We became sustainable
when the choices made in the present
were able to balance the use of the assets received from the past with the legacy left for the future. One of the most
immediate results of this approach to
the economy, considering it as a process
in time, was the change in pricing: gasoline, for example, whose value per liter
now includes the “before” – time for oil
to form and the “after” – rebalancing
environmental consequences.
Compare what it means to understand something from a photo or from
a movie. For it was something similar
that happened when we began to take
Time into account. Shifting from static
to dynamic is, for example, to work with
processes (dynamic) and not just with
products (static). Previously, a bank that
would finance a restaurant could fund
“hardware” products such as stoves or
the remodeling of the space, but could
not finance “software”, processes like
Chef training courses. This is precisely
what adds value and a plus.
In Brazil, the same change of focus
on products / infrastructure to one of
focus on processes / systems management prevented the repetition of the
socio-economic and environmental mistakes of World Cup 2014. What to do
with newly built or renewed spaces,
previously without use, lacking maintenance, content, management, or public? How to succeed in having the resources of the event benefit a variety of
local MSEs and not be concentrated in a
few large enterprises? For the Olympics
2016, the biggest investments were in
intelligence and organization of collectives – qualify and prepare services, educate, train managers, organize solidarity
networks and/or micro entrepreneurs
who could meet the services demand.
Innovate by holding major events within a collaborative rationale, adopting
socio-cultural technologies in order to
achieve low economic cost and high social outcomes – this was the country’s
33
The Pro-City Bank
presents its Pro Machine
A machine where citizens can deposit all projects that benefit the city will be inaugurated tomorrow. It will then conduct a viability study
weighing feasibility, necessary funding, and
benefits for the city.
For the selected projects, the Bank will facilitate not only the money needed, but also other
institutional, corporate, and any other relations
needed. Interest will be reduced and will be
proportional to the success of the project.
Erica Sarchione and Florence Lucchesi,
Rosario, Argentina, 2010.
legacy to the world. Still today, we are
in awe at the originality of the stadiums
renewed by the samba schools, each
one leaving its mark and creativity, a
combination of colors and shapes that
was the very picture of the Brazilian
way of being that launched Collaborative City Planning.
34
4DxT ECONOMY:
Multidimensional Resources, Results, and Values Changes in the economic system are
still ongoing, and so it is best to explain
how it is being designed. In 4DxT Economics, Time acts as a coefficient, a multiplying factor for the value assigned to
each resource received from the past or
outcome generated in the present. A D
/ symbolic- cultural resource, such as a
traditional dance; a D / environment resource, such as fruit trees; or a D / sociopolitical resource, such as respect for
human rights will have final values proportional to the Time coefficient, by
which they were multiplied. Ex: Human
rights respected for a longer period of
time, a higher value.
In 4DxT Economics,
the sum of the Resources of each dimension
constitutes the Assets of
that dimension. The total 4DxT Heritage is the
sum of the tangible
assets (monetary financial / solidary + environment natural / technological) and the
intangibles assets: socio-political and symbolic- cultural assets.
The same rationale applies to the
Results. The en-
semble of results in each dimension is
equal to the impact. These, when
added (or subtracted ...) generate the
4DxT Total Impact – which may be
negative or positive.
Total Heritage plus (or minus) Total
Impact give the Real 4DxT Value, which
is the real value of the future.
Example, an enterprise may have
this result:
• (D / financial) Sales + 8
• (D / environmental) Utilization of vacant spaces - 4
• (D / socio-political) Reputation - 3
• (D / symbolic - cultural) Knowledge
management + 6
The total is 8 - 4 - 3 + 6 = 7
When speaking of Time it is crucial
to highlight that our major advances
came from the perception that time is
much more than money. Anything
that makes people, institutions, and
venues happier and more evolved
takes place in Time: relate, learn,
create, care for, understand, taste. “To
Optimize Time” is more than to make
it more productive. We know that the
function of better management and
increased productivity is to create
more free time for activities that add
flavor and sense to life.
Time also makes it possible to generate that abundant and precious resource which was largely responsible
for having us actually succeed in making “sustainable”, “participatory”,
“creative”, “diverse” stop from being
adjectives to become widely adopted
practices nurturing the “Cognitive Surplus”, a concept proposed at the turn
of the century, by Clay Shirky. The combination free time + collaboration /
connection via the web produces an
abundant source of knowledge, talent,
good will, and commitment to be applied in any kind of cause or context.
This has happened, for example, in
DDCG: co-Governance is possible due to
people´s time and knowledge cognitive
surplus. The more successful the DDCG
(and end of corruption was an evidence), the more people enjoy it; and
this generates better results that, in
turn, generate more engagement and,
lo and behold, we finally leave vicious
circles to enter virtuous ones.
35
From the linear
to the volumetric: visualize to
understand and act
The transition to a multidimensional
economy allowed a more clear view of
the processes associated with wealth in
all its forms... Imagine the difference it
makes to appreciate a construction from
the blueprint or a 3D model. The relationship between perception and acuity
between traditional economics and the
new economic system is the same.
To visualize this multidimensional
wealth and its flows was an important
strategy to engage the planetary population in DDCG – Digital Direct CoGovernance. Soon after the Bubble of
2013, Clocks of Money were created.
Illuminated billboards (formerly used
for advertising, or for Stock Exchange
quotations) showing how much money
was there, where, with whom, and
invested in what.
Later, we moved on to 4xD Models
of Abundance, using architecture soft-
Clock of Happiness: more time, happier. Alexandre
Matos and Ecthol Mejia, Dominican Republic, 2009.
“Free time”, “leisure” and “work”
will practically be synonymous.
Besides being similar, one is contained in the
other. Thus, the word “work” will not inspire
negative adjectives such as boring, tiresome,
stressful, and constraining. In the future, work
will be seen as leisure time; the time when we
liberate the child within to become free and to
create. All this relaxation, experienced for hours
each day, will affect our health and appearance:
we will be more immune to disease and will age
more slowly, because body and mind grow old
together and since the latter takes longer to feel
the burden of age, the former follows suit.
Olindo de Oliveira Estevam, Brazil, 2010.
36
Example of visualization of the Web topography, showing
nodes and directory trees using the Walrus tool.
www.caida.org
ware tools. The dimensions of wealth
appeared as the layers of graphics programs and the data were transformed
into volumetric shapes; color gradients, ranging from red to green, displayed states of alert or balance; resource flows, in time and space, could
be seen, as well as the interactions between them.
By rendering all these aspects visible, the Abundance Models were extremely effective in public and private
management processes. And they continue to delight people who walk by
and watch the environmental dimension growing and gaining color when
mango trees are laden with fruit. The
intense flow of D / socio-political resources generates much enthusiasm
when hundreds of people are in samba
schools´ Co-Laboratories getting next
year´s Carnival ready. The same goes
for the magnitude of the values represented by the cultural diversity of the
MacroSEES11 (former countries) of the
African continent, once seen as poor.
New indicators and
ways to measure
wealth
Sixty years ago, economist and futurist
Hazel Henderson12 already pointed out
that the monetized GDP corresponds
only to two layers of the Total Production System. According to our 4DxT rationale, we would say that the informal economy (D / financial), the
economy of solidarity (D / socio- political), and what was offered by the natural environment (D / environmental)
remained invisible. Today, we would
add another layer, aware that it is
probably the largest of all, because it
multiplies and renews itself – the D /
cultural-symbolic heritage. Imagine
how much eight thousand years of history are “worth”, a 100% (well!) educated population, or all the books produced in the world, accessible, online?
12
Presented by her in Crie Futuros Bancos Moedas,
2009 http://criefuturos.com/futuros_criados/
11
Macro Ecossistema Sócio Ambiental
C.F_Novos_Bancos_e_Moedas_Hazel_Henderson
Since the ‘70s of the 20th century
other ways of measuring wealth 13have
been discussed to replace the GDP, a biased index, which increased with ecological hazards or wars, and was unable
to provide a true picture of a nation’s
available resources. It was then that the
term GNH14, Gross National Happiness
was coined. Insofar as the logic of living
= earn money was being replaced by
living = enjoy Time, other indexes
emerged15, and the GNH went on gaining acceptance and new adaptations.
When measuring the Real 4DxT
Value of the Socio-Environmental Macro
Ecosystems (also called nations in some
places) the application of the GNH 4DxT
changed the axes of power and economics by revealing that, in the overall
calculation of the 4D, they are not so
disparate. There are many examples of
13
See for instance this Compendium by Anne Louette,
available in Portuguese and English
http://www.compendiosustentabilidade.com.br/
compendiodeindicadores/default.asp
14
Gross National Happiness, formulated in Bhutan, in
1972 http://www.gnh-movement.org
15
http://www.happyplanetindex.org/
Hazel Henderson, in 1982, already pointed out that the GDP only encompasses a small part of the total productive system.
Practicing the GNH
From the perception that the GDP does not include quality of life and it is not the only indicator of
people´s happiness, a condominium, with 2,500 people, took a census to identify the opportunities and
needs of its residents.
Some of the objectives were to create more interaction, find nearby places to work, and take advantage of
the time and skills of people to generate in-house courses and workshops in the condos to improve
income and quality of life.
The result was an energizing relationship among people, supported by the GNH – Gross National
Happiness Indicator.
Fernando Figueiredo and Fernando Almeida, Brazil, 2009.
37
38
Oikos + Nomia
The new avatars of the economy are finally
abandoning their outdated economic theories
that no longer serve to understand the new
practices carried out by communities. Individuals and communities have long found that economics is a science of being, since etymologically, oiko is home and nomia is care. Thanks to this
awareness, exchange relationships are taking
place through the meaningful use of time in a
shared and collaborative way.
Leila Garcia, Sergio Barbosa and Jose Salvino
Filho, Brazil, 2009.
MacroSEES with more abundant D / socio-political resources, but scarce D / environmental and other resources that
have an abundance of D / symbolic-cultural and D / financial scarcity. To further
reduce the disparity, international trade
is designed to balance scarcity and surplus, rather than accentuate them.
Economic 4DxT data collection
evolved considerably compared to earlier forms, essentially capable of collecting quantitative and sectoral evidence and corresponding to the formal
part of the economy. The “informal”
sector (but not necessarily unlawful)
grew more and more, parallel to the
growth of entrepreneurship – especially in OrganoCollectives (groups operating in a functional, but not legal organization) payments were made in
various currencies. Although much was
being done, there were increasingly
fewer “jobs.”
In the traditional economy, it was
possible to map and measure using linear procedures, systematized as in a
production chain. For instance, from the
cotton thread to the T-shirt. The centrality of the Green Economy and the Creative Economy made it necessary to
evaluate and measure complex systems.
Both the “sectoral” notion and the linearity no longer applied. A trivial example: when measuring the formalized
sector of dance, we would reach a small
value; maybe the meager sum of dancers, choreographers, and performances.
But the economy of “dance” is very
large, because it includes popular festivities (like Carnival), celebrations (such as
parties and weddings), nightlife, and
fitness centers with all their equipment,
spaces, contents, props, etc. And that’s
because we are referring only to the D /
financial aspects – the importance of
“dancing” increases even more when
its “results“ and impacts on other 4DxT
dimensions are verified.
Another factor that led to a change
in data collection was the amazing
speed with which new professions and
languages arose as the result of transdisciplinarity and the consequent need
to connect different areas of knowledge and expertise. The old “taxonomic” standard that tried to create
codes for every type of activity could no
longer be maintained. Already in the
mid-twentieth century, for areas linked
to creativity, it was difficult to classify
people and projects according to the
existing codes. An outcome of this increasing failure to fit knowledge and
professions into closed and predetermined areas was the reformulation of
higher education. In the Pluriversities
convergence replaced specialization;
discipline menus are offered (and not
closed curricula), and since information
is available everywhere, they have increasingly become practice labs.
Moreover, in the beginning of the
21st century, it became clear that sustainable development took place at local level, in the territories, and this further contributed to gradually put aside
the “sectoral” concept. The 4DxT logic
and tools allowed the territories (now
called MicroSEES – Micro Socio- Environmental Ecosystems) to be studied
under a multidimensional volumetric
rationale. It was possible to have a georeferenced reading, where 4DxT layers
were superimposed on satellite images.
Readings of images are produced by
the flow of data in time (as in visualizations16 of data), or a combination of
both. It was actually possible to have a
true organic perception of the territories and their processes appeared as organs of a living system – highlighting
their ecosystem character.
16
http://www.webdesignerdepot.
com/2009/06/50-great-examples-of-data-visualization/
Activation Function: from absolute value
to relative value
To map and measure the intangible, using measuring tools and methods devised to measure “things”, is not very efficient. Creating an analogy, clouds are
not mapped in the same way as mountains, but instead, by studying their behavior. Approaches similar to the calculation and study of climate – where the
interactions and dynamics are registered
– were adopted to measure the intangible. We made good progress when the
quantum concepts became more present in everyday life (imagine, that in the
‘10s, almost one hundred years after
their formulation, schools still only
taught Newtonian physics). As such, an
analogy between the Particles of quantum physics and Tangibles (the basis of
traditional economy) was observed, and
between Intangibles (the basis of Creative Economy) and Energy, strengthening the need to further study “behavior” rather than form. According to the
39
Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle(22)17,
the more we dedicate ourselves to
knowing the position (space / form) of
an electron, the less we will know about
its momentum (time / process) and vice
versa. Similarly, it was found to be more
efficient to map the new economy from
its dynamic aspect (momentum / process) than its form (position / quantities),
since areas related to intangibles are
characterized by their accelerated and
constant change of form. After concluding a measurement of that reality, it no
longer exists – the cloud has moved.
When studying the “behavior”
more than the “form”, it was found
that fields of activity have different activating potentials. Some can activate
their surroundings, boosting other business areas, while others only generate
jobs. Compare, for instance, the uniformity of an old industrial neighborhood
to the variety of a current creative territory. Some cause environmental damage, others qualify those who produce
and those who consume, creating or
17
Statement of quantum physics postulated in 1927
40
Ibero-American Gazette, October 13,
2015
A new exchange currency of socio-environmental value was launched today.
Starting today, every citizen receives his personal card for monetary transactions. Initially the
card will perform transactions in four types of
currency:
• Social attention time: for the exchange of time
(hours) made available to the fellowman;
• Bonds of Exhaustible Resources: measurement
of time of mineral reserve
• Recycling tax on material goods ( non-renewable resources)
• Ticket for organic restaurant: inducing the consumption of organics
Haroldo Vilhena, Christophe Place and Cesar
Matsumoto, 2009.
changing cultures. The more benefits
are generated, and in more dimensions,
the greater the Activating Potential.
The damage caused generates negative
activating potential, which grows according to the amount of dimensions
affected. Thus it becomes clear that the
ways of assigning value to resources, re-
sults, products, and services cannot be
uniform. Today, there are other factors
relative to the Activating Function of
each element of the economy.
Let us say that two types of businesses generate additional $1,000. The
first, an unregulated extractive activity
that can have a negative activating
function (- 2.5) and the value computed
as (- $1.500). This means that it generated a $1,500 revenue, but caused a
$2,500 damage (environmental, social,
etc.) The other is dedicated to facilitate
access to ICTs, has a high activating
function, say 5, resulting in a final value
of $5,000. The $1,000 revenue generated $4,000 in benefits (social, cultural
etc.) Another example: when assigning
a value to a D / environment resource –
say a river – if it is located in a tropical
region, with a lot of water, the activating function can be 2, whereas in an
arid region, it can reach 8.
Studying economic areas from their
activating potential standpoint was crucial for Creative Economy and Green
Economy, of high activating potential,
to be definitely turned into priorities.
4DxT CURRENCIES AND ALTERNATIVE
CURRENCIES
Adoption of the 4DxT outlook on
wealth – multi-faceted abundance – resulted in the creation of various “currencies”, corresponding to the resources
and results of the four dimensions. At
the beginning it was controversial, because many people felt that this “monetized” the various aspects of life. Finally, it was concluded that, at that
transition stage, it was still necessary to
“tangibilize” the values related to dimensions other than the financial, until
a new culture capable of perceiving
them without the need of currencies
was created.
The government pioneered in accepting payments in different currencies. Not enough money this month?
Pay your tax by devoting time to the
daycare center next door, or by offering
tomatoes from your urban green garden for a snack... Since government is
fully digitized, this type of procedure is
Alternative Currencies, Collection Circuito Fora do Eixo, 2008.
easy to manage, and each citizen can
manage his own Public Account of Multiple Currencies.
Currencies are also important to allow convertibility of values among the
4DxT dimensions. In the past, we were
only capable of recognizing financial
value: one invested financial resources,
one received financial resources. The
Cycles of Value Generation had not
been studied, showing that value
“changes state” much like water does.
A simple example becomes evident
when we use the word “capital”: “fi-
nancial capital” invested in education
generates “human capital” (researchers), which in turn can generate “social
capital” (a Forest Code) that can generate “environmental capital” that may
eventually generate new “financial capital”. The value is “changing state”
when passing through the 4D dimensions. Another example18: an unknown
music group that participates in a large
collaborative festival, for free, but that
receives a CD of the show paid for with
the Reputation, Visibility, and Contacts
“currency”. Perception of the Value Cycle was instrumental to implement Policies and Investments in the medium and
long term, avoiding the pitfalls of immediatist results.
The diversity that characterizes this
century of ours is strongly represented
in the currencies and other forms of
payment and credit that we have today.
Exchange currencies have existed for
tens of thousands of years, while single,
centralized currencies only for a short
period of time, just over three centuries
18
This is often the case in the Circuito Fora do
Eixo- http://foradoeixo.org.br/institucional
41
Database of products and services:
Gifts and Talents Barter Card
Attention, attention! Urgent news.
An innovative solution was established after the
collapse of the Currency in Kind and the Mint:
the government announced that its site features
a database with addresses, e-mails, and phone
numbers of all services and products available
for exchange, including both corporations and
individuals. For example:
• Exchange healthcare services with the Dr. Do It
All company;
• Plumbing repairs in exchange for five massage
sessions;
• Cleaning and painting for your home for 10
sessions of RPG or Pilates;
• One dinner at the “Of The Future” restaurant
and cafeteria for one box of fruit and vegetables
from Sta. Tereza Farm.
Your gifts and talents, products and services cannot be lost or stolen; they are worth gold.
Eliana Fonseca, Rosangela da Silva and Zilda
Cristina dos Santos, Brazil, 2009.
42
– the period when they were a tool for
the consolidation of the nation states19.
When a currency is created, an exchange agreement is established within
a group and the main result is a
strengthening of the ties and the building of trust, i.e., in social capital, which
is the one type of capital capable of activating the others. Information transparency and accessibility led this
century´s society to forsake the state of
fear and distrust in which it had been
immersed for years and begin that of
trust – in itself, in others, in possibilities.
As a result, credit recovered its original
meaning: to give credit = to believe.
With the comfort offered by new technologies, individuals could decide how
much, where, for whom, and how they
wanted to invest their money.
Times Square em 2042 –
4DxT Wealth Indicators.
Angela León, 2012.
19
Tom Greco, Money , Understanding and Creating
Alternatives to Legal Tender, 2001
NEW CONTEXT,
NEW PROFESSIONAL DYNAMICS
In recent decades, institutions had to
learn to turn intangible assets into the
“raw material” and essence of a new
Economy of Abundance, empowered by
the infinites offered by new technologies and organization in networks and
collectives. Since the goal was to create
business models that would generate
multidimensional results, within the
4DxT rationale, the structure of institutions had to be thought out anew. The
areas linked to intangibles and that
promote integration with others were
strengthened, acting as a kind of
“modem”, a strategic and aggregating
element that guarantee the sum of the
transdisciplinary skills required.
Very early in this century, products
and services were similar, and quality
and price were premises, not differentiating factors. Practice has shown that
what could guarantee longevity, attractiveness, and loyalty was intangible:
brand, design, innovation, cultural attributes, social responsibility, and environmental leadership. Today, the economy
is no longer spurred by products or
services, but by experience (that is why
tourism and entertainment have grown
so much), while the actual products and
services are differentiated by the type of
experience they bring about. Values are
no longer measured only quantitatively
but also qualitatively. Not only Result
(short-term view) is measured, but
mainly Impact (medium-term view).
Reputation is the major measurement of
an enterprise´s or an institution´s value.
It is what ensures their ability to attract
collaborators for their teams and public
interested in what they offer.
Below are some of the elements
that enabled this change:
BB Information Age or Age of Creativity? It has become clear that the central
issue is not so much the information available, but the culture and creativity that give
us the ability to use it. A parallel: to have
the ingredients does not mean to have the
cake. The recipe, the process, knowing
what / how to use them are missing. Areas
43
New Law for marketing products
On Tuesday, October 13, 2042, the Central Government of five continents approved a law establishing that all enterprises worldwide must
include a 10% to 15% rate for social responsibility in the price of their products in order to
receive their licenses.
The enterprise will have to allocate this percentage to an action for sustainable development of a community. Any enterprise that does
not abide by this new law will be prevented
from marketing their products. The Production
agency will oversee the validity of the enterprise’s social action. Assistance will be given
to micro entrepreneurs who lack resources to
implement such actions. It is expected that
this new law will provide a substantial improvement in the living conditions of millions
of people over the coming years.
Bruno Dias Pereira de Andrade and Frederic
Lavoie, São Paulo, 2010.
related to Intangibles became a key e lement
in the strategic planning of organizations,
when it was found out that talents and
skills are their greatest assets. And that
means people...
44
BB From products to processes: Our
dreams of the past showed a future where
invented technology and products were
the solution for everything. Today, we
know that technology is a means, not an
end, and this further reinforced the need
for processes: to change the way of thinking and doing.
BB Modems and connectors: In the 20th
century telecommunications and computing evolved thanks to “modems” and
“hubs”, and their ability to integrate and
link different languages and systems. In
this 21st century, the change to the centrality of intangibles and creative economy
was possible only due to professionals and
institutions that act as “modems”, as connectors. The new professional´s profile is
to be a “modem” – able to connect multiple disciplines, several areas within the
enterprise and accomplish the necessary
integration between government and
business sectors.
BB Social capital, trust, self-esteem:
Areas of the institution that collaborate to
create a climate of self confidence and self
esteem – of people, communities, enterprises, cities – are strategic. This builds
interpersonal trust, which in turn builds
social capital. And the key to development is social capital – which we usually
lack. Trust and social capital are created
by valuing the positive, cultural diversity,
internal talents, and all that strengthens
cooperation.
BB Time, the only non-renewable
resource: The new technologies have let
us conquer space and quantity: in the first
decades, we were enchanted with the possibility of being in many places, simultaneously. For that, we lost time and quality...
Today, institutions not only help us to optimize time, but to rescue and enhance the
enjoyment, intensity, and direction we
were losing.
BB Choices and Consequences: In the
first decade of this century, information
and demand overload, lack of time, and
the urgency to attain sustainability made
knowing how to choose and be aware of
the consequences of each act a priority.
Institutions, then, had to devise and provide tools to make this possible.
The diversification of occupations
of the past decades is remarkable and
consistent with the main trends of our
century: diversity, decentralization,
and autonomy. Many are used to connect different areas and languages,
especially in the 4DxT Sustainability
context.
A Professional of the Futures is multi, trans, poly, to
carry out the function of “connector”. Elvis Gonzalez,
Dominican Republic, 2010.
Only things that matter,
nothing urgent
In the near future, the enterprise will only become involved with clients and projects that
have the power to transform or create sustainable and lasting relationships between brands
and people. Relevance of the cause proposed
and the client’s time constraint will define the
project’s position within a matrix that will tell us
whether we should or not get involved in the
project. If the cause is relevant and the time available for the project is compatible with the time
needed by the team to develop it calmly, carefully,
and confidently, the enterprise will take it. If one
of these prerequisites of importance without urgency is not met, the proposal is rejected.
Roberto and Ana, 2010.
The New Motoboys
Motoboys still exist today, but with new functions, since the delivery of documents and packages now uses systems that track who is nearest to the venue to make the delivery. Tourism
has grown, as well as the number of elderly
people: motoboys are also tourist guides (who
knows the city better?), or take the elderly
where they want to go. Note that both functions
require careful and attentive driving!
Felipe Jordani, Brazil, 2012.
Motoboys in their
new functions.
Angela León, 2012.
45
Promoter Of Socio-Economic and Environmental
Feasibility — Assess and plan the lessening of
economic, social, and environmental impacts in
various value chains, and at all spheres.
Specialist In Environmental and Biodiversity
Services Economy — In charge of appraising
“nature and biodiversity services“ for territorial
planning and licensing.
Sustainable Flow Entrepreneur — Creates undertakings that, simultaneously, solve collective
issues and generate social and environmental
results and wealth for investors. Considers that
flow is what must be achieved and interdependence is its perspective.
Energy Researcher — Develops energy solutions of all kinds for all types of processes, including food.
Sustainability Actions Articulator — Maps out
and connects different stakeholders to enhance/
expand the impact of actions that promote
sustainability.
Domestic Cells Energy Generation Technician —
Promotes alternative small-scale power generation. Brings about small-scale energy changes.
Created during the Workshop on Innovation in
the New Economy, held by the Avina Foundation, October 2010.
46
Others are related to the new
international scenario of increasing
mobility where we live and work in
various countries.
One of the most active categories
today are NGIs – Non-governmental Individuals, people who engage in public
causes and bear witness to an extraordinary power to carry out the transformation of individuals. The movement
Cultural Facilitator
Accompanies people so they can learn to live by
the culture of a host country other than theirs, to
foster awareness and enrich global culture.
• Remains in a given country for 3 months;
• Interacts with people who share the same
interests;
• Broad historical, political, and social
knowledge;
• Ability as a communicator;
• Permanently connected with stakeholders;
• Supported by government;
• Sensitive to interpersonal interests.
Edgar Morales and Jose Aaldana,
Mexico, 2010.
has grown since our historians rescued
this amazing story of 2007, when Severino Manoel de Souza assembled a
Community Library, and Jose Luis Zagati showed movies for free at the
Tupy Film Club. Both stood on the cement slab of their small house and
were built with materials that had
been discarded20.
Alterity is a guiding principle for
all kinds of activities, and institutions
always seek to develop dynamics to reinforce them. The more people are
able to understand the function of
each one of them, the broader their
overview of the whole institution and
the better the flows. And finally, the
mood has become an important element of any workplace and profession.
In the past, there used to be a time to
“work” and a time to “live”. Today, as
we do what we like and believe in the
purpose of what we produce, joy, pleasure, relaxation, and play are part of
our daily lives.
20
See the video by Averaldo Nunes Rocha and Márcio
Sno Mitio Konno, 2007, showing these stories.
Knowledge Pickers:
Since they circulate everywhere, they are also
pollenizers of knowledge: by circulating books
and other cultural products wherever they go.
Their carts are equipped with sound, books, toys,
everything recycled from junk.
Julia Toro, Fernando P. Tohmé and Bella Zubbelis,
Brazil, 2009.
Inauguration of the Municipal Market “Happy Collective.”
Day of ‘Change-Change’ lets
employees to know themselves better
Imagine arriving and finding the chief executive
officer making Xerox copies and receiving patients in the clinic, the general coordinator developing menus, the managing assistant taking
over a meeting or even a computer technician
giving lessons to children. These are some examples of what happened on the first Day of the
Change-Change.
The idea is simple: on this special day, each employee plays a very different role from his or her
own to better understand the institution and the
particularities of tasks, responsibilities, and operation of each position. This practice will happen
monthly, in a kind of rotation. The assessment of
the first day of this innovative experience was
positive: everyone felt challenged, appreciated
their colleagues’ performance, and felt more integrated into the institution.
Ana Cecilia, Lourdinha and Patricia,
São Paulo, 2010.
Yesterday was the opening of the first Municipal Exchanges and Fair Trade Market, where one can find all
kinds of innovative services, such as “press a button” energy charging; “full pension” virtual tourism”; a
wide range of radical virtual sports; smell and touch emporiums; practical objects and accessories made
from leftovers. A wide range of crafts and services are also available for bartering. Payments may be made in
$CSREE (Currency of Social Responsibility Exchange) and other local currencies, including direct bartering.
Open 24 hours a day, every day.
Andrea Jácome and Veronica Murias, Rosario, Argentina, 2010.
Urgency and Importance Decoder
A tool capable of differentiating urgent matters from important issues was created.
This is a collaborative tool and it all begins with a list of values and beliefs: I believe in what? What do I
treasure? What is more important for me and for the enterprise? How many people will benefit from this
action? And how many will be harmed by it?
Then, a questions exercise starts: What would happen if we did not do this by tomorrow? What would happen if we did not have to go through so many steps? And what would we benefit if feedback did not take so
long? And if there were not so many steps for approval, what would we gain in time and quality? And what
would it be like if we did it together, all committed to the same order and the same deadlines? And if we
changed functions, exchanged positions – client X supplier- what would change?
Finally, a priority list balancing time + people + resources + importance is made.
Then, the urgent and important actions are defined and teams are assigned for each set of actions.
Tania and Maurice, Brazil, 2010.
47
48
desirable new world
Earning One's Multicurrency
Life in Economy 2.0
Melanie Swan, MBA, Principal MS Futures Group, 2012.
The fast pace of technology advance and global connectedness is bringing
about transformation in all aspects of life including the economy. Traditional notions of production, labor, and value exchange are being reformulated.
In particular, there are five concepts that are shaping Economy 2.0 and its
implementation: affinity capital, the multicurrency society, the proliferation
of markets, the evolution of financial services, and abundance injection
techniques.
1. Affinity Capital
The first concept in Economy 2.0 is affinity capital, where deeper levels of
information about every economic transaction are starting to be available
such that individuals, businesses, and communities can more specifically direct their capital inflows and outflows. Product purchases can be made on
the basis of attributes related to origin and manufacture. Employees can be
more selective about their earnings, checking employer’s corporate social
responsibility indices and preferring to be independent contractors through
online marketplaces. Affinity capital can be directed in capital outflows
through socially-responsible mutual funds, peer-to-peer lending, and social
venture capital. Philanthropy is merging with investing where some investors accede to a lower financial return, acceptable when social outcomes
can be achieved simultaneously.
2. Multicurrency Society
The second concept in Economy 2.0 is the multicurrency society. Some of the
new non-monetary currencies include reputation, authority, time, attention, intention, ideas, creativity, and health. The new currencies do not yet have all of
the properties of traditional currencies such as being fungible, transferable,
and convertible, but this would be expected to develop if the currencies are to
persist. In the future, it might be possible to transfer online reputations between digital properties such as Amazon, eBAY, Facebook, and Google. Measurement of the new currencies is facilitated through their digital footprints,
for examples by counting the number of friends, followers, re-posts, link-clicks,
and keyword searches.
3. Proliferation of Markets
The third concept in Economy 2.0 is the proliferation of markets. There are
more and different kinds of markets and market principles are being used as
design elements in contexts that are not traditionally market-related. There is
an extension of instruments in financial markets such as carbon credit trading,
weather futures, and housing futures. Markets have arisen in the form of virtual online economies in video games like World of Warcraft and virtual worlds
like Second Life. Prediction markets are emerging as an important mechanism
for capturing group opinion about event outcomes such as elections and product sales. There are new markets like the gift economy where individuals work
for free, possibly not expecting anything in return, or perhaps earning a reputational benefit, for example open-source software projects and the Wikipedia.
Other digital exchanges for building reputation and status include idea markets like Quora, Twitter, and Innocentive.com.
4. Financial Services Evolution
The fourth concept in Economy 2.0 is the evolution in financial services. The
traditional model was one central institution impersonally serving many individuals. Now there are innovative new market models that offer alternatives in
the conduct of many financial services. In payment networks, there are services such as PayPal, cell phone networks, Google Wallet, and NFC chips. In financing models, there are services such as peer-to-peer lending, crowd-funding, and the gift economy. Banking services are democratizing faster than
other industries as a lady with a cell phone in the remote village is now providing financial transfers and other services to a wide range of clientele.
49
Implementation of Economy 2.0
To realize Economy 2.0, a tiered policy plan could be enacted. First could be
enabling the populace as the foundation for growth, providing gratis mobile
telephones and internet access. Second could be extending efforts to develop
a skilled workforce in critical growth areas for the future economy such as energy, computer programming, cloud services, and medical tourism, as India did
with software and call centers, and China is doing with genomic sequencing
and supercomputing. Third could be the early adoption of core future technologies such as clean energy, synthetic biology, 3D printing, big data manipulation, and molecular nanotechnology.
5. Abundance Injection Techniques
Now that there is a more empowered and malleable concept of markets, market principles can be used as design elements in other situations, in particular
to create abundance. Market principles and digital technologies can be the
tools for injecting abundance into areas of former scarcity to make a difference. In some cases scarcity is good as a market indicator of value but there is
unnecessary scarcity that could be democratized in many places in society.
There are already some examples of abundance injection techniques being
used in the institutional settings of academia and governments, for example
through open-access journals and open-source software licenses.
“A pyramid that reveals all the secrets hidden by humanity.”
Edgleison, FILE, Rio de Janeiro, 2011.
50
Guto Lacaz, Brazil, October, 2008.
tags: laws – digital government – decision, participation –
4dxt democracy, social game of governance, cooperation –
public management – meritocracy – participatory – rights
– frontiers – international cooperation – partnerships –
regulation – norms – procedures – governance
3
GOVERN, DECIDE, COORDINATE
“Who controls the past controls the future:
who controls the present controls the past.”
George Orwell
52
Change of Government Model
Slavery and the Republic;
Sustainability and Meritocracy
When looking at our past we are surprised by things such as grant of indulgencies1 or existence of slavery. Likewise, when looking at our recent history
we are surprised at how long it took for
sustainability to become a guiding
premise and axis of all policies, undertakings, ways of thinking and doing.
For centuries a series of economic
and social standards made the impossible acceptable – like purchasing2 pardon
for souls in Purgatory, or enslaving fellowmen. Similarly, it was also necessary
to change standards and beliefs that
justify unsustainable procedures. Today,
1
At the time, this sale warranted the bases of the
financial system. Are we living something analogous? Are
there “nothings” being sold?
2
By indulgences, the faithful may obtain for
themselves or for the souls of the Purgatory, remission for
temporal penances, sequels or their sins” (Catechism of the
Catholic Church, 1498) inadmissible is not to be sustainable in
every detail.
The current civilizatory change is
similar to that experienced in the 19th
century: the process of abolition of slavery occurred concomitantly with the
transition from monarchy to republic.
Not by chance the Abolition of the Unsustainable accompanied the shift to a
new political paradigm: the move from
the republic to TPM: Transdisciplinary
Participatory Meritocracy.
The parties system weakened
naturally, as new forms of collective
representation and decision making
were offered by the network society.
Furthermore, the parties gradually
resembled one another and, in most
countries, there was no clear distinction
between the old left and right, all of
them drifting towards the center.
Aware of that, while CO 2 emissions
eroded the environmental ecosystem,
corruption and lack of ethics eroded
the socio-cultural ecosystem, it became
imperative to fight them just as
fiercely as global warming was being
fought against. A reassessment of the
parties, their campaigns and funding
processes, was part of the intense
mobilization to end corruption in all its
forms: governments, enterprises, as well
as individuals.
Globalization promoted exchange
and interchange of perspective in social
and political practices-and it made it
possible to learn about the best of each
country (to facilitate historical understanding we have continued to use the
old term “nation”). Examples: Japanese
reliability / seriousness; Brazilian adaptability / resourcefulness; highly technical
governments in China; social capital
through society engagement in clubs
and associations, such as in Japan and
the USA; in the post-socialism era, the
Eastern European countries direct leap
into the 21st3 century thanks to their
digital governments.
Small countries were the first to
demilitarize, and some disbanded their
armies in the 19th century. Not surprisingly, there was a correlation between
3
http://abracoop.com.br/
lista-de-paises-sem-forcas-armadas-paises-desmilitarizados/
G overn, D ecide , Coordinate
the lists of such countries with those
with a better quality of life, something
that encouraged other countries to
change their military forces into Caring
Forces. The social, environmental, cultural and especially economic immediate benefits were so significant that
more and more countries are adopting
this strategy. The level of social welfare attained by small countries was
one of the reasons leading to the designing of the current decentralized
management mechanisms, whereby
big cities, or countries, are managed in
smaller units. After all, a sprawling
shantytown in São Paulo had more
inhabitants than Iceland.
Still in the first decade of this century, China adopted Creative Economy
and Green Economy4 as priority strategies, realizing that to restore the environment and balance internal tensions
they were the key to prosperity. This
was done very quickly and efficiently,
and it soon became the country that
4
See at http://www.worldbank.org/content/dam/
Worldbank/document/China-2030-complete.pdf
53
developed most green technologies
and bigger creative market. To avoid
hegemony, other countries followed
suit. And fast!
Transdisciplinary Participative
Meritocracy
We had the Great Bubble of 2013 and
the turmoil that followed it, the Global
Data Blackout, which almost ended in a
Third World War, but was fortunately
avoided, since connectivity and extended access to real time information made
citizens more aware of the power
games going on around the world. This
same access allowed the Web community and its “good” hackers to retrieve at
least part of the lost data.
Two years after the Arab Spring,
there came the European Summer; after one and a half year, the LatinAmerican Autumn; and, finally, the
Asian Winter; and season after season,
year after year, the real democracy
movements pushed for change.
The experience began with Transdisciplinary Participatory Meritocracy.
The name “Transdisciplinary” comes
Wiki Agora: Public Spaces intended for the free
production of knowledge and decision making.
Reinaldo Pamponet and Thomaz Buckup, Brasil, 2009.
Illustration Odete Arias, Dominican Republic, 2010.
from the not compartmentalized, systemic management that follows the
same organic and biomimetic outlook
that had guided other decision-making
spheres. Each Management Unit is
54
Interconnected and
creative sectors
Now, the relationship among the three sectors is
one of circularity and interdependence; hierarchy no longer exists. Through sectoral and regional commitment, short or long-term targets
are set without relying on policies and political
power, but instead on actors and representatives of their own desires. As such, it is important that creativity and art be present in all sectors. Therefore, it is essential to enhance cell
spaces, such as schools, to function as pollinators of this coexistence and disseminators of
creativity as a corrective and transformative
potential, thus fulfilling the four fields (symbolic,
social, economic, environmental) with values of
solidarity and cooperation.
Guta Bodick, Joao Roberto Fava, Claudia Maria
Fontana, Marta Fernandes, Clara Prazuelo,
Marco Borches, Natalie Simon, João Meirelles,
and Ivan Melita, Brazil, 2008.
c onsidered a socio-environmental ecosystem and today’s leaders, now called
Facilitators, or Public Connectors, are in
charge of work towards transdisciplinary solutions.
There is no division of power by jurisdictions, but by Transdisciplinary Management Nodes working, through task
forces. Each Node is managed by three
persons: an expert in the area, a specialist on the impact of decisions in this area
related to the environmental ecosystem
(tangible), and a third specialized in impact on the socio-cultural system (intangible). The Facilitators or Public Connectors are designated for their merits and
a series of other criteria, such as competence and technical expertise in the area
in question (although obvious, there
were times when it was possible to be a
minister without some knowledge of
the area). Furthermore, for their effective articulatedness, especially effective
with the communities they represent,
and, finally, for taking into account the
desirable future of these communities
and having an interdisciplinary and collaborative outlook and practice.
Decisive factors in TMN are the
4DxT Footprints. The candidate must, of
course, have a good score in the four dimensions. In addition to the Ecological
Footprint, the Civic Footprint 4DxT5, the
Footprint of Budget Optimization, and
the Footprint of Quick Response have
greater weight.
Indeed, a number of factors contributed to the new governance model’s
efficiency: absence of competition, or
feudalization of jurisdictions; joint and
integrated action; resource optimization; progressive replacement by highly
trained and committed teams. The result is that, if before the second most
popular sport was to speak ill of the
government, now the most popular one
is co-governance, whereas the power
game became the game “Yes we can”.
The Social Game of Co-Governance won more supporters when
conditions were created to make use
of the Cognitive Surplus of the population. At the beginning of the centu5
See this interesting example from Canada: http://
www.civicfootprint.ca/
ry, it started with movements such as
the Transparency Hacker6, where civil
society collaborated with time and
knowledge to make public data visible
and accessible.
An important element in this
game was the abundant use of the
cognitive surplus of inmates: madmen,
with their creativity and freedom;
those linked to organized crime, with
their ability for leadership, managerial
talent, commitment, and holistic outlook. To the extent that these skills
were targeted for positive action,
these people were able to decrease
their debt to society by means of the
positive scores of their 4dxT Footprints
The more intense the Game of
Governance, the more fun and the
more fans. The goals were many: overthrow a corrupt politician; retrieve a
head of organized crime; mobilize for
forestry code approval; improve budget distribution; forge alliances and
partnerships. Slowly, people were better balancing the time allocated to
6
http://thacker.com.br
other games and sports. Imagine all
the transformation potential available,
when people monitor a vote on reform with the same enthusiasm shown
for their team! Or, when people engage themselves in the study of elements of public administration with
the same interest they pay to a knee
injury of a football star.
The day when cheerleaders, with
their shirts and firecrackers, took to
the streets to celebrate the transformation of Military Forces into Care
Forces is unforgettable. It was amazing to see the ripples of holas and the
chants “Education is my champion!
Education, in my heart!” in front of
Congress. Or, in the same way we
heard “Goooooal” echoing everywhere in the city we now hear “Aprovoooooved” – because the voting is
followed by the people, online, and on
electronic screens. Inside pubs, men
gathered to follow the score of negotiations and chanted “Go, go! Close
this partnership!” “Move On! Cut that
budget.” Of course, this all happened
while having organic and locally pro-
55
Law that assures the level of
sensitivity of future leaders
The World Council met to define the only way to
choose leaders.
Applications are prohibited. Leaders will be nominated by their communities, among those who:
humbly value the enormous responsibility of
human beings on the planet; to have lived by
the conviction that the sum of collective knowledge is the solution for problems; to have
worked in community; to have graduated in
the “School of Global Culture”;
David Anica and Guillermo Dignani,
Rosario, Argentina, 2010.
From inmates to doctors
In 10 years, individuals who were arrested and
convicted will be monitored by qualified professionals and will be given learning, education,
love, awareness of the importance of the family
and of self-awareness in society. The inmate
would be released, trained to have another outlook on the world, and would be thus fit for reintegration in society, a space that is common to
all. Only through knowledge and education can
society and general attitude be changed.
Sormani Medina, Marcia Regina Silva and
Claudia Niza, Campinas, Brazil, 2010.
56
duced beer and peanuts, perched on
stools with foot pedals that generate
energy through movement, voting and
choosing over their smart phones and
other mobile devices.
Commitment and 4DxT Policies
As the 4DxT economy had multidimensional and relative values, in 4DxT Politics the vote of each citizen had a
weight proportional to his commit-
Interactivity and Decision-Making
The system of decision via interactive TV by remote control through individual IPs is increasingly effective.
After the amendment proposed by the Government a month ago and debate broadcast by
various experts, the people decided today, by a
landslide, that it will be prohibited to drive a
motor vehicles less than 600m away from
beaches and conservation areas.
The measure will be tested for three months,
after which the people will have the final say.
Edward Nartin and Roberta Pinheiro,
Brazil, 2010.
ment: the more positive their 4DxTfootprints, the greater the weight of
his choice. That’s how we freed ourselves from the dynamics where a vote
without a ballast of knowledge and
awareness would eventually produce
authoritarian governments and would
not be directed to the common good.
The 4DxT Footprints also reinforced the transparency and trust
among all spheres and this, together
with the possibilities of the network
society, led to the development of an
extraordinary collaborative system of
visualization and monitoring of public
and private data.
Data are fed by the citizens themselves and generate maps of environmental, symbolic – cultural, sociopolitical, economic MicroSEE, and their
whole – the Macro Socio-environmental Ecosystems. This multidimensional
approach enables detailed and dynamic reading that facilitates understanding of the geosociopolitical physiology
of each of these Management Units.
The system allows reading each one of
its layers together or separately.
A systemic and collaborative view,
in real time, allowed us to move towards the current DDCG-Direct Digital
Co-Governance model. The model is
still incipient, but is more decentralized and pluralistic than the Transdisciplinary Participatory Meritocracy, and
is more strongly focused on the micro,
local level, where the processes of
change actually occur. There was an inversion: the former municipalities were
serving the nation and were ruled by
it. Today, the MacroSEEs are networks
of MicroSEEs and policies are decided
locally, both to ensure diversity (the
differential that guarantees the value
of each locality) and to streamline decision-making and action. The Macro
jurisdiction serves as a facilitator and
organizer of the flow between them.
What was formerly the State is now
called Macro Moderator (MM), because its role is to facilitate, articulate,
and regulate flows and decision-making among all parties involved.
Direct Digital Democracy
Without politicians, without corruption, this system of discussion and voting online will ensure a transfer of
responsibilities and competencies from parliament, directly to the citizens. As a result, we will be able to break
down the legislature at all levels, municipal, state and federal. The exploitation to which we are now submitted by dishonest politicians who act only on their self-interests will be abolished so that the real interests of
the nation will be carried out.
Dr. Clandestino, FILE, Rio de Janeiro, 2011.
From Frontiers to Membranes, from
the Wall to the Skin
Systems thinking, sustainability, the
Gaia theory, bio mimicry. All led to an
organic outlook of the world. This suggested replacing frontiers by permeable and flexible mechanisms similar to
those of living beings. In addition to
complex issues, such as discrimination,
ethnic strife, migration and refugees, a
number of daily factors demanded an
in-depth structural change. In the new
4DxT economy, international relations,
as an extension of local relations; participatory governance and online, direct marketing and credit between the
57
parties, even from a distance; growing
numbers of people working and living
in more than one country; children
studying for half a year in each country;
public administration understood as a
means to balance and regulate flows of
four-dimensional assets, required
changing the very geopolitical structure. Traditional concepts of countries
or states no longer made sense. Politically defined boundaries no longer
made sense.
Of course limits to the Management
Units were necessary, but these limits
were related to their function, how they
operated tangible and intangible, environmental and sociocultural ecosystems.
Already in 2011, there was an example in
the Creative Brazil Plan7: the combination of geography (tangible) with culture, generating the Creative Watersheds – defined as a geographical
region comprising several territories
with common cultural identity.
7
Proposal for develpment of the country
through Creative Economy: http://www.cultura.gov.br/
site/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/livro-ingl%C3%AAsweb.
pdf, pg. 66
58
In various public spaces it is
possible to practice Co-Governance.
Ângela Leon, 2012.
There from appeared the Micro (local) and Macro (national) SEE - Social
and Environmental Ecosystems. Their
boundaries are organic and functional,
similar to membranes, or skin: to protect, regulate exchanges, and above all,
End of Customs
To celebrate years of activity, the World Parliament (WParl) declared the end of Custom borders and the flexibilization of territorial frontiers.
Thereby, the global deputies intend to eliminate
disputes over sovereignty, market protectionism,
to allow free movement of persons, goods, and
culture among countries.
The decision is part of the lawmakers´ plan to
abolish the division of the planet into national
units in the next ten years. The organization of
the world in countries will cease to be a territorial issue to become only a cultural and practical
one. Considered by political analysts as one of
the most important moments in human history,
the measure will, once and for all, abolish borders between peoples.
Felipe Jordani, Brazil, 2012.
to be a sensory organ that provides information to guide choices.
This also brought about changes in
International Cooperation that now
have quite distinct processes. Terms such
as “help” or “capacity building” are
practically out of the lexicon, since they
imply a perception of weakness or lack
of capabilities on the part of those who
are supported. Cooperation always
takes place by exchange: for example,
the population that receives financial
support (increasingly rare) should devote time to educational processes in
exchange. The Cooperation processes
are almost always direct, without intermediation of the State, to facilitate actions and to optimize resources. They
occur mainly through currencies other
than financial ones, since these created
relations of dependency, corruption and
correlated problems. The most common
support is through “Soft” technologies
sharing: sociocultural technologies to
strengthen social capital (so that it can
enable the other capitals) and utilization of the local symbolic and cultural
heritage. The shared experiences derive
from the good practices of non-governmental organizations and social enterprises that simultaneously generate entrepreneurial, cultural, educational, and
social results.
A very successful experiment was
“Creatives Without Borders”8,a caravan
of collectives and collaborative institutions that contribute sharing their trans-
forming skills: to train young people to
deal with ICT and recycle electronics, local agents of the creative economy; programmers helping to visualize public
data; collaborative production of
knowledge and tools for health care
work, with humor; joint efforts, in the
form of contests, for the construction of
leisure facilities, permaculture, organic
family farming, low-tech technologies9.
Today, the only remaining passport
is the “Youth Passport”: with it, young
people can learn about, try, and work in
all types of activity before choosing the
ones (yes, because nobody has only one)
they will engage in. This process took
place between what was once called
“college” and admission into the Pluriversities, and it helps them to make a
good choice: to do what they like and
believe in.
8
See reference at http://www.
doctorswithoutborders.org/
Planning, Long-term,
Commitment
Studies conducted in Brazil10, in 2005;
show that the country was wasting as
much as 150% of its GDP. Everything
produced waste: food thrown away11;
time lost in traffic jams12; bureaucracy
preventing problem solving; energy
wasted in distribution networks still operating in the old centralized / mono
model, based on huge or hydroelectric
power plants. Soon after Rio + 20, more
incentives were given for the creation
of small networks of energy production,
local and combined sources: mini hydroelectric, wind, solar, and kinetic plants.
10
http://www.intranet.rj.gov.br/exibe_pagina.
asp?id=1804
11
The world already produces enough food for
everyone. In Brazil, between planting and the table, 50%
of edibles are wasted http://www.ecodebate.com.
br/2009/11/12/o-brasil-esta-entre-os-10-paises-que-maisdesperdicam-comida-no-mundo/
9
In chapter 7 we have the Collaborative Manifesto,
designed at na artistic retreat with many organizations that
inspired this text
59
12
In the EU, 50 Billions Euros in 2009. http://eur-lex.
europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.
do?uri=CELEX:52006DC0059:PT:NOT
60
Network Holistics
Crie Futuros Comics Competition. Figuira Rio +20 as seen by Beatriz Rocha, Brazil, 2011.
One of the first steps toward sustainability was to expand the notion of
waste, considering not only tangible but
also intangible resources, such as time,
ideas, and knowledge. It was then that
saving human energy finally became as
important as saving water or reducing
waste. Prioritization of joy, environments of trust and autonomy were some
of the strategies used to avoid wasting
enthusiasm and good faith.
An important factor in the man-
The facilitator and mediator of interactive cultural networks is a leader with a holistic view.
He has the ability to see and use the richness of
each individual, thus enhancing the human capital. In this network, everybody can co-create
and become co-authors of projects and processes-always detached from institutions-both autonomous and creative. Thus, sharing a common
house (the network) and the potential of each
one, the leader would circulate and distribute
potential and capital (in all senses), establishing
new paradigms and decentralizing the economy.
Vivian Hirsch, Melina Roldan, Suzana Ferreira,
Vanessa Reis, Tai Masi, Silvia Sa, Patricia de
Souza, Mariana Costa, Claudia Cezar and
Diana Castro, Brazil, 2009.
agement of tangible and intangible
resources was the abolishment of parties, since repeated changes of government administrations brought
about huge waste. Today, policies and
planning are agreed upon by the com-
munity, carried out by technical teams,
and implemented over the long term.
The gains from the Open Drawer
Movement were impressive: government projects that had begun and discontinued by changes in administration were rescued from drawers.
Transdisciplinary teams comprised of
public administrators and volunteer
pluriversity students organized the
material and found out that solutions
had already been created, but most
often had only been partially implemented, for most issues. It was another example of adjusting the work
to what is already there- potential,
not shortage.
Small attitudes have led to huge
results, an example was that leaders finally participated in discussions and
seminars prepared for them. In many
places, the old practice was for authorities, who should listen to the contents,
to make the opening speeches at
events and leave soon afterwards, and
for seminars to end as something like
“preaching to the choir.” Perhaps the
Proportional Salary for Public Facilita-
tors and Connectors, proportional to
the success of their interventions, contributed to that.
The results of good planning and
better use of what already existed led
to the creation of the Research Fellowship for Public Administration and
each Node of Transdisciplinary Management provided a year for planning
and team-building before candidacy.
We went from the marketer who
planned the campaigns to the Cooperation Coach, as the managerial teams
were trained with the same level of
detail as sports teams. Even those who
were not chosen shared their Transdisciplinary Plan (after all they were publicly funded ...) and the best of each
proposal was agreed upon before
yielding the final plan.
The focus of management was the
long term; after all, we are talking
about sustainability and nothing lasting can be expected from administrations that last two to four years. This
transition was carried out by a growing number of women in leading positions. However, the best results were
61
From Censors To Sensors
An innovative social decompression chamber
called Social Rehabilitation Center was inaugurated yesterday. There, a person elected by
the civil society undergoes a series of sensitizing experiences to become more reflective and
perceptive. From there, the person starts to
feel in his/her own skin what it feels like to
live life from a perspective different from his/
her own reality.
Who would be better qualified to benefit from
this innovative process?
People who formulate laws, such as politicians,
who after a period at the Center, will have to
rely on the public services of their own creation?
Or, the owner of an enterprise that lays off an
employee, but who will have to live for a few
months as the dismissed employee, thereby becoming aware of the problem to propose solutions. Just imagine how this will transform human relationships!
Esdras G. Cerqueiras; Ronaldo G. Alves;
Anastácia Jean Kyrissoglou and Emelin Assef
Jorge, Brasil, 2009.
62
Who decides to wage the war goes to the front!
When governments decide to wage war, those declaring it and their families should be the first to go to the
front. In this way, wars would probably never be waged.
Also, the person who makes a law should be the first to obey it. Based on experience, there would only be
“good” laws for the benefit of all and not just one individual.
Mari Pini and Lyca Grinberg, Brazil, 2009.
achieved when they were joined by
men with their synthesis capability,
simplicity, and focus. After a period of
women predominance in leadership
positions, we returned to a gender balance (by the way, all genders, which by
then were many) after the Program of
Male Affection. It was interesting to
see that men noticing the existing relationship between commitments in affective relationships with personal satisfaction coincided with their going
back to taking over leading positions.
Regarding time in office, if in six
months managers were not effective
in implementing the plans proposed,
they were replaced. Conversely, they
could remain as long as management
was good.
As stated earlier, this series of
measures was part of the Plan for
Management of Intangible Residue: at
the dawn of sustainability there was
great concern about solid waste management, but little about intangibles.
One of the worst outcomes was the
enormous waste of knowledge due to
the constant shifting of teams and lack
of systematization of experiences. Not
just in the public sector but in all sectors, too. So it became imperative to
stop this from going on.
The Role of the
State: Facilitator
and Connector
Perhaps the greatest asset of the Macro
Moderator is its access by all sectors, individuals, enterprises, institutions. Thus,
he/she is the only person who can play
such key roles in our time-Process Connector and Facilitator. All-digital systems enable the state to know the
what, who, when, where and how
about all supply and demand. And so it
can build bridges and create or regulate
flows. This, incidentally, is its major task
since it became clear that sustainability
is equivalent to balanced flow among
4DxT assets.
The Macro Moderator should first
do what only it can do: create regulatory mechanisms. Policies, standards, laws,
regulations, incentives and financing,
structure and learning processes, entrepreneurship tools, in short, everything
that contributes to its ultimate goal:
create a favorable environment. In a
parallel with Nature and the process of
cultivation, the MM should guarantee
seeds (recognize, value, and preserve
the four-dimensional heritage), and a
step that usually goes unnoticed: preparing the ground.
An important aspect of preparing
the ground is Advocacy13: to work on
cultural and mindset changes (intangible) that precedes each structural
change; forge partnerships and alliances; communication campaigns and provide information to the media. Interestingly, this stage does not exhaust
material resources, but generates many
results by identifying potentials and
how best exploit them.
In a 4DxT government policies
should have a systemic (multi-sectoral
and transversal) outlook and the main
objective is to propose activities that
culminate in the creation of a favorable
environment for Green Economy and
Creative Economy. To achieve these objectives, the Macro Moderator promotes
joint and integrated action between
the Transdisciplinary Management
13
Term corresponding to defense and dissemination of
a concept
Nodes within their respective fields of
action. It also carries out partnerships
with private enterprises, associations,
civil society organizations, and Pluriversities to ensure sustainability.
Sustainable attitudes in the economic dimension imply focus on improving income distribution and use not
only of financial, monetary tools, but
also those related to solidarity economy
and alternative currencies. In the environmental dimension, dealing with
clean and renewable natural resources
and sharing infrastructure such as space,
equipment, and service networks. In the
sociopolitical dimension, optimizing
time, resources, and information
through integrated and converging action among institutions. Finally, in the
symbolic-cultural dimension, our resources for the economy are preservation and enhancement of cultural diversity and the centrality of intangibles.
The focus on sustainability revealed a gap in traditional management, which considered only the present: production, distribution, and
consumption. This gap was one of the
63
factors that brought about the global
financial crisis which, fortunately, we
managed to resolve. Today, in a systemic and sustainable outlook, 4DxT management includes the steps related to
the “before” and “after” of resources
received from the past and the legacy
for the future14. Instead of the linear
production chain, we work with the notion of Cycles, which are closed by the
systematization of experience in the
form of indicators, data, and research
that may feed the next Cycle.
14
For more info research the economist José Eli da
Veiga, among others
64
Mesh Management: Use What You Have
In recent decades we have witnessed
the passing from of Centralized/Mono
to Decentralized / Pluri Patterns, possible thanks to the network society´s
characteristics, to the focus on intangibles, and trust as a premise for commercial and interpersonal relations.
Actually, the same happened with the
government and, today, the Mesh 15
concept of sharing applies also to
Mesh Management. The basic principle is the same one that guided the
great changes in our society: to work
on potencies and not on shortages,
creating better operation systems than
the existing ones.
Example: suppose that in a MacroSEE, there is lack of appropriate personnel, management is carried out by employees without technical qualification.
In this case partnerships are established
with educational institutions to over15
Concept created by Lisa Gansky: it means joining
points in a sharing economy. See their Manifest in http://
meshing.it/manifesto_mesh_eng.pdf
come the existing deficiencies. The students already graduate with extensive
practical involvement, which did not
happen before, because they start applying their knowledge from the beginning. Students in vocational education
and pluriversitary training prepare local
teams on how to use ICTs, carry out research based on actual needs, act as Local Agents of Furtherance. Excellent results were obtained with the adoption
of Convergence as the guideline-another hallmark of modern times, when
compared to past compartmentalizing.
The number of programs and projects
implemented based on the convergence of pluriversity research was
amazing. For example, Coursework
Completion (CWC), where students
converged on the same subject. Let´s
take CCWs of a 4DxT Environmental Engineering class: this convergence would
allow each student to approach an aspect to be improved and the sum of
work would lead to a systemic solution
for that location.
This rationale of working on potencies, with what is available, triggered
progress of the so-called “developing”
countries. By avoiding the mistakes of
the 20th century´s neo-liberals they went
from a situation of “backwardness”
leaping straight into the 21st century. In
these instances it was interesting to
note that “backwardness was the opportunity,” because their environmental, cultural, and symbolic heritages
were still preserved. Progress was due
to the fact that this type of policy and
collaborative action of the Macro Moderator does not require cash money, just
alliances. A double benefit, because
without the involvement of cash there
was less proneness to corruption, and
more alliances strengthened institutional relationships. That means simultaneous work with the two key factors:
strengthening of ethics and social capital. All this is leveraged and possible
thanks to the priority given to truly
widespread access to ICTs, one of the
priorities recommended in the Sustainable Measures Post-Rio + 20.
The prevailing rationale is to check
what´s in place and how it can be better
used. Previously, (since the Pyramids!)
governments believed that to build
mega projects bore witness to their
quality, and consistently focused on implementing major civil construction
works, often expensive and not very
functional. Every planning meeting began with “we need ...” and not with
“we already have...” An example: when
it became evident that the creative
economy was a guiding strategy for development, the needs of MicroSEEs
were mapped out at the local development level. The need for Multifunctional Spaces that could house both a community meeting and a handicrafts
exhibition, or movie projection was perceived. And of course, these “hardware” / structures needed “software”/
processes to connect them and make
them functional. Formerly, the prevailing rationale favored the opposite: dozens of large spaces were built with limited programs and few artistic
languages, were open for a few hours,
some days a week, and at costs that
would be enough to equip and integrate the entire Network of Multifunction Spaces in hundreds of MicroSEEs.
Following the Mesh Management rationale, we don’t create new spaces (unsustainable...), but instead, map out the
idle periods in existing spaces, and then
develop systems to occupy them.
The same rationale-to create systems that promote better use instead of
building large civil works -solved one of
the major problems faced in the transition to sustainability: the energy issue.
The solution was once again to go from
a centralized / mono pattern to a decentralized / multi one with the aforementioned Local Networks of Micro Energy
Production Units, with renewable sources, diversified and managed by the communities themselves.
One of the strategies of Mesh Government was the intensification of research in reverse logistics: see which systems were already developed and could
be better utilized. A simple example
that gave positive results was the use of
surpluses, such as books, or used equipment, using pre-existing distribution
systems. Today, every home has an input and an output system, for example,
the milk bottles come in (yes, they were
Reverse Logistics. The same delivery system is in charge of
redistribution. RAI, Brazil, 2008.
65
66
reintroduced) and books which have
been read go out. The same enterprises
that make deliveries remove the objects
for reuse: who brought the new stove
takes away the old stove to the Central
from where they are redistributed.
Following this rationale of checking what there is and not what is lacking, it became evident that public administration is also important to take
“oldeities” into account and not just
innovations; many of the solutions
needed for our sustainable and desirable world existed at some point in
time, and were retrieved. This recovery
was stressed by a movement similar to
the Opening of Drawers with regard to
government projects: the Movement
for Retrieval of Inventions and Patents.
Discoveries that had been shelved because they were not very profitable
were recovered and put into practice,
such as vehicles powered by water, or
herbal medicine.
Innovation and Soft and Low-tech Technologies
Of course with Creative Economy and
Green Economy as priorities, and all the
progress that followed it, was only possible thanks to widespread access to
ICTs. Almost 20 years have gone by since
all children in all countries of the world
have simple computers and modems for
Internet access. Even countries with no
electric power adopted local solutions
-from solar cells to bicycle powered
computers -to ensure this access. The
use of mobile devices enabled every citizen of the planet to be connected. We
have become points of a major network
throughout the planet, a network that
communicates, delivers data, shares
outlooks and, above all, is able to feel
the pulse of the planet - careful to safeguard its sustainable state.
For over fifteen years, access to the
Internet has been part of the basic services provided by the Macro Moderator
State: water, electricity, sanitation, clean-
ing, Internet. There are wi-fi networks in
all public spaces and even the MicroSEEs
have telecenters. At the beginning of
the century, Internet Cafes, especially in
low-income communities used refurbished computers and played a very important role. Still today, they are a major
source of income generation, fostering
encounter and exchange.
For the older generation was somewhat difficult to make the transition to
full use of ICTs, but children helped
them a lot. The Intergenerational Learning Programs were very successful: the
elderly learned with young people how
to deal with digital technologies and
taught skills - after all, nowadays they
offer great job opportunities.
The enormous changes of the recent decades would not be possible
without the conceptual change regarding innovation. Because in all previous
centuries the emphasis had been on the
structural, tangible, innovation was
considered just when it referred to
things, inventions, gadgets - what we
call “hard” innovation and technology.
When studying what caused the prog-
ress of some countries, the relation
with a greater appreciation of the
“soft”, procedural technologies and innovations, and management16 related
to intelligence was son detected.
The Macro Moderator must be
careful not to set anachronistic policies, since its role in the 21st century is
to enable the future and thus should
not be driven by immediacy, becoming
solely concerned with the demands of
the present. As such, innovation must
be considered as beyond and above
product and infrastructure, and should
prioritize process innovation, guided
by knowledge and management. Innovation that relies on cultural diversity, the dynamism of traditions, the
experiences of the third sector on the
generation of creative products and
services. It appears that until recently
the more developed countries were
those that focused on intelligence and
management relegating the production to “emerging” countries. At the
beginning of the century, they became aware that to be a supplier of
commodities and consumer of infrastructure was not a route toward development for the creative economies
peculiar to the 21st century.
In “Soft” Innovation there is unity
between formal and informal knowledge and innovative products and services incorporate models, old habits, and
traditions that continue to be updated
and useful. The symbolic-cultural heritage is alive, dynamic and unique, to be
enjoyed by native and foreign populations. In management and marketing
models, there is also innovation, by incorporating collaborative principles and
other forms of collective action.
The new innovation concepts include and value “oldeities” and low
tech, recognizing the genius of creative solutions developed at low-cost
by low-income populations. India17 aggregated the government, NGOs, entrepreneurs, and public schools in de-
16
17
See the studies of Jin Zhouying, Diretor of CTISS,
67
Knowledge database
In 2020, the government launches a project,
where students are catalysts of experiences in
their communities. The goal is to recruit and reward public school students to investigate and
know the residents of their community, their
knowledge, and creative and innovative projects,
to organize this content in a large network of
“utilities and knowledges”, which are catalogued
to be shared with other communities.
Eduardo Giacommazi and Ronaldo Gonçalves,
São Paulo, 2009.
veloping mechanisms to identify and
disseminate these innovations. Its example was followed by several other
countries and the results are wideranging: hundreds of devices to facilitate agriculture; eyeglass frames with
photoelectric cells for nighttime reading; shoes with a dynamo in the soles
to collect energy from movement, and
all sorts of inventions based on bicycles:
from the e-bike to the pedal-powered
respiratory device18.
In government http://www.nif.org.in/; in civil
Chinese Academy of Social Sciences,Beijing. http://www.
society http://www.sristi.org; in entrepreneurship: http://
18
worldbusiness.org/about/fellows/zhou-ying-jin/
west.gian.org/
Article.38950.html
See reference at http://www.idisc.net/en/
68
problems. Governments
have realized that their
role at this time in history was to create processes, more than merely
guaranteeing infrastructure. The importance of
socio-cultural technologies, technologies of the
intangible became evident, those that through
social and cultural resources generate wealth
and four-dimensional
“Oldeities”: Milk bottles and mini-cars that already existed. RAI Brazil, 2008.
quality of life.
Brazil, as a storage
To the extent that the “soft” techhouse and reference for this type of
nologies were appreciated, social entechnology, was the first to create an
trepreneurship became a source of inAgency for Support and Export of Soft
spiration. Since the ‘10s, there was an
Technologies, initially intended to enexpansion of B-Corporations businesses
sure the success of new policies for
for wellbeing19, or Life Regenerating
hosting the 2016 Olympics. To systematize and disseminate methodologies
Businesses20: using the power of busiwas mandatory when 4DxT Social Poliness to solve social and environmental
cies replaced the market policies that
ruled the 2O14 World Cup. Today, Lat19
The USA: http://hbr.org/2011/11/
in America is the world’s largest prothe-for-benefit-enterprise/ar/1
vider of these technologies that
20
In Latin America http://www.erv-lrb.com/
achieve a lot with little, and generate
4DxT results that go far beyond the financial sphere.
New Law:
Trust and Simplicity Are the Rule The models of government are no longer segmented and have become systemic, looking for integrated solutions
for every issue, just as health cannot be
resolved without sanitation, and education does not exist without culture. Another case that is part of the general
movement to go from a sectoral approach and segmented activities towards a systemic and integrated outlook. The consequence was the need to
change rules, laws, and policies.
This was reflected in the Law, since
the previous set of laws followed a
taxonomic logic, sorting out and trying
to fit everything into categories - unworkable in the context of the 21 st I
century. Some recent historians point
out two interesting ideas: the first is
that this “classificatory” Law followed
the process of classifying everything
that marked the 18th and 19th centuries. Before ecology, the study of life
itself was highly taxonomic, directed
more to morphology than to physiology. The second is that the old Constitutions and laws were formulated to defend ownership; the State and not the
people; having and not being; individuals and not human collectivity. Remember that the first time the “human family” is mentioned in Law was
in the Universal Declaration of Human
Rights, 1948. Only in the nineties, of
the 20th century, did national constitutions begin to include, for example,
the notion of “humanity.” This occurred in two aspects: “crimes against
humanity” and “common heritage of
humanity”21 and many of the reformulations we have today were a result of
the expansion of these concepts.
69
The extended discussion on what
could be crimes against humanity led to
the revision of many of the everyday issues of the pre-sustainability phase,
such as eating habits, hegemonies, manipulation of information, restriction of
patents. We even found a register of
2009 citing that predatory financism
was a mechanism of mass extermination22. From expansion of the concepts
of “common heritage of humanity” derived the concepts of assets in multiple
dimensions, initially referring to the environmental, followed by the social, until reaching the final 4DxT design.
Returning to the theme of taxonomic vs. systemic, from the ‘20s on, we
witnessed a massive overhaul of the judiciary, which had to be simplified and
streamlined. Data show that in Brazil,
in 2010, the country had 86.623 million
22
Lecture on“Innovation for Human Security”, by
David Harries, of the Canadian Defense Academy and
Foresight Canada, 10/12/2009, 6th International Conference
on Innovation and Management, PUC, São Paulo.
21
See the text on the subject by the lawyer Mireille
23
http://adperj.jusbrasil.com.br/noticias/2373555/
Delmas-Marty, chapter 8, “A Religação dos
brasilia-brasil-tem-86-6-milhoes-de-processos-
Saberes”,organized by Edgar Morin, 1999
emandamento
Games only for amusement, in which
there are no winners. Isabela Correia
and Castro, FILE, Rio de Janeiro, 2011.
70
Technology for Peace. Ricardo Millen,
FILE, Rio de Janeiro, 2011.
ongoing processes, which meant 2.2
cases per inhabitant24. Obviously, there
was not enough time or staff to resolve
them. The number of cases greatly
increased each year, but not that of
24
http://www.ibge.gov.br/home/presidencia/noticias/
noticia_visualiza.php?id_noticia=1766
Every large city should have huge screens along its avenues displaying cultural activities from other countries.
Gabriel Castillo, Randy Encarnación, Dominican Republic, 2009.
judges25. In the process of simplifying
the Courts of Common Sense at the local level, were very effective, since a significant number could be resolved by
applying the common sense shown by
ordinary citizens.
25
http://www.lunazonta.com.br/
brasileiro-gasta-r-17704ano-para-manter-o-judiciario
Another factor that allowed this
simplification was to leave aside the
taxonomic Law, with its thousands of
laws, to go back to the Fundamental
Principles that could guide the actions.
This process came together with the
trend to abandon morphological (classify situations and types) and stride to-
71
wards the physiological (understanding roles). Some efficient synthetic
works existed, beginning with the Ten
Commandments, or the Carolingian
Magna Carta 26, progressing to the
Earth Charter, or even the infallible
Eight Laws of Robotics, by Isaac
Asimov. They served as input to draw
the few rules that guide us today, the
first of them already quite sufficient:
“Do onto others and the planet as you
would want done onto you.”
A major determinant of this change
was going from fear to trust. To trust
was infinitely more practical, inexpensive, simple and effective than fear. It
was urgent that the time, resources,
teams, structure (and enthusiasm!)
spent on distrust were invested in sustainability. Fear is no longer good business and its entire industry was directed
toward sustainability, trust, and collaboration, the most profitable in the long
term and on a 4DxT scale. It is obviously
more ethical and amusing, too.
26
http://www.earthcharterinaction.org/content/
Replay – “Sheet-computer”, solar powered, with holographic images and Internet access 3.0.
Tetsu Takita, Rio de Janeiro, 2009.
72
A prospective idea of culture: how
will the culture of the future be?
Angel Mestres Vila1, Barcelona, Spain, 2008.
CEO of Transit Proyectes, coordinator Master in Cultural
Management at the Universidad de Barcelona.
How will the culture of the future be? What new cultural creations will the
model of collective creation bring to us? How will the new technologies transform local development?
Considering that technology is just one tool in our daily lives, these questions
and many others arise every day when we turn on the computer, tablet or
smartphone. The Internet has already transformed the process of cultural creation and dissemination. Thanks to the network, we are no longer mere consumers, but have also become producers and distributors.
What is culture? Culture is a mechanism of adaptation. It is the tool that
makes us produce and exchange symbols. However, to answer the question
that begins this article, it is necessary to start thinking about how to create
these symbols from now on, since the current tools change and exchange
constantly. It is therefore important to allude to three aspects that are basic:
Knowledge, Communication and Cooperation.
I submit eight proposals not as Negroponte did in Being Digital, 1995, but
from a perspective in which the user is the center of all the processes.
1
http://www.transit.es/; http://www.asceps.org/
Prospective 1. Hybrid public space.
Occupy and transform the public space by combining local action, in the space,
with organization and communication through digital technologies. The mobile
phone will evolve as a system for locating people with similar interests and attitudes. A social network in the real space, which will also allow the creation of
complex games and performances, partially online and partially presential. Increase of the flow of information in a contextual and non-invasive way.
Prospective 2. Digital storytelling.
Narratives will be created in a collective form, in audiovisual formats to enhance social inclusion and creativity. Live performances and creations in real
time between people thousands of miles away from each other. New technologies in mobile devices will make it easier to establish such links of direct interaction between the first world and developing countries. Narratives will be developed by means of various channels, offering different experiences and
different stories within the same world, and to understand it in its globality, we
will have to enter into each of these channels.
Prospective 3. Remix culture.
The trends seen in actions and movements such as Copyleft, Creative Commons
and the “procumún2” will create a new way of considering culture. Rather than
finished products we will have pieces of a puzzle, with clips of music, sound,
photography, cinema, animation, etc., so that everyone may build their own
works. The culture builds itself upon former symbols, is a remix and a constant
reinterpretation.
2
A concept that is applicable to everything that belongs to the collective
Prospective 4. Electronic DIY (Do It Yourself).
The introduction of hardware such as the Arduino, and the development of
powerful programming languages designed for artists and designers, such
as the Processing, will increasingly make it common that rather than buying
finished digital products, we will devise our own. The popularization of 3D
printers will allow each one to think out their own design of an object and
make it a reality. We will customize clothes including electronic components,
such as sensors.
Prospective 5. Geomedia.
The inclusion of a GPS in more and more electronic devices, improvement of
geolocation systems and other spatial positioning programs will enable the creation of a new kind of multimedia art project, making it possible to know at
every moment where they are and thus react and provide contextual information from our location. Facilitating access and relating not only with their closest local context, but within a global context.
Prospective 6. E-emotion.
Culture is to create experiences and emotions. Multimedia art projects able to
recognize in which emotional state we are and produce content tailored to
these emotions. Cameras that shoot automatically when they observe an increase in our interest for a specific object or situation; musical equipment that
detects our mood and selects the right music, or a system that suggests, according to our tastes and at any moment which exhibition, film or theater piece we
might like to watch.
73
Prospective 7. Cyborgs.
The inclusion of sensors, robotics and multimedia in the performing arts will be
increasingly present. When the novelty is over, really interesting proposals will
begin to appear, where these technological elements will not only be used because it “looks good”, but really associated with the story, thus transforming
the arts such as the theater, dance and so on.
Prospective 8. Diversity.
All the above points are definitely guided by tools based on new technology the advancement achieved by these means provides their decisive incorporation in daily activities.
The true meaning of culture of the future is rooted in the use of these means.
This is a paradigm shift that introduces us as facilitators to foster inclusion, democratization of the means, interculturality and diversity. People increasingly
become part of this global phenomenon, thanks to the reduced distances afforded by these tools. They will be able to use the contrast provided by these
new points of view to understand their own realities. Multilingualism, new nomadisms, migration, diversity and culture of all and for all.
74
Govern the future
Joxean Fernández, Spain, 2012.
International Consultant on Culture, Development and Innovation1.
Only the older generation remembers how it was to govern in the past. It meant
to manage fear. Exercise power, a male power, uniform, indifferent to human
needs, autistic. The future was being built with the bricks of ancient fear, that evil
has always prevailed over good and that the human being’s capacity for transformation was dormant, a mirror broken into a thousand irreconcilable pieces.
Dreamers of futures were dangerous because they moved against the current. The fate of dreamers was that of heretics, madmen or clowns, different
names for the same personage: the one that looks around and wants to
change the world.
Freeing oneself from the tyranny of common sense
We were subjected to a lesser god, that of practical reason and its narrow
limits of reality.
We need to change everything, for everything to change
Three generations ago, the polar ice cap melted and the world said enough. We
were flooded not only with water, but also with hope. We felt the responsibility
to do something before it was too late. With the energy of seven billion people
convinced that it was urgent and possible to drastically transform the state of
mind in relation to the future. In view of the pretentiously rational and always
threatening, discourse of the scribes of power, people discovered that dreaming
was a revolutionary weapon. Together we can change. Break the bonds.
1
www.ekinconsulting.com
New crafts
Since school, the most prestigious crafts are those that improve community
welfare, caregivers, dreamers, sanitizers, educators, collaborators, scientists,
true civil servants.
The dreamers
Dreamers are children from zero to 99 years of age. Literally. Eyes full of the
future of newborn. Eyes full of wisdom of the elderly, just as the concentric
circles of an aged tree. Often dreams are collective and they slowly impregnate the awareness of the community. Crazy dreams have stopped wars, reconciled fiendish peoples, and stopped destruction of the Amazon.
The rainbow days
Each person dedicates a variable number of days per year to collaborate in
community causes. It’s easy to know when someone is on a rainbow day: he
walks around with a happy smile lighting up his face. Some say that the
rainbow causes are inefficient and should be replaced by professionalized
(and mandatory) services. These initiatives will never prosper. Efficiency is an
overestimated value, it is a relic of the excesses of rationality. If the rainbow
day assessed the contribution to the collective happiness, it would be one of
the more luminous initiatives.
Distributors of hugs
These are special beings, empathic, that people seek like a shade on a hot
day. There are professional distributors, and adepts who embrace on the
rain-bow days. Sometime it might be kind of embarrassing, but indeed, it is
always pleasant to receive a smile and a hug or two...
The new civil servants
Public service has acquired value. Opportunistic behavior has disappeared.
There are new forms of democratic control that act as barriers against harmful behaviors. Yet, lack of coordination persists and the errors are still frequent. But, there is a collective determination to improve, adjust and continue changing.
Politics, art of the impossible
Politics are now the art of the impossible. The best politicians are compulsive
dreamer with a vocation of craftsmen. They dream dreams and heed that
they come true. Politics became an honorable and ephemeral profession. All
citizens have the responsibility and privilege to serve others at some point in
their lives. Capability and willingness to learn, hope, humility, commitment,
are the most appreciated values.
Govern, articulate, coordinate
The government abandoned uniformity. It no longer gives instructions, issues
decrees and sets forth laws. It is no longer for the few, but for all. The new
politics is no longer understood without accountability and participation.
Even for a controversial decision, voting is compulsory. Relevant collective
decisions are the outcome of a long process of deliberation, which requires
time. Speed is just another outdated concept.
The capabilities of those in government to promote processes of self-organization, cooperation, sum of wills, change of opinion are enhanced. Respect
is the language of the new politics. The problems are solved at the venue
nearest to the people. Most citizens are aware that they are part of the crew
of a ship on which we are all onboard.
75
The antennas of citizen sensitivity
There are sensors of citizen sensitivity all over. For complex or innovative
matters they act as thermometers, measuring people’s views on the subjects under discussion. It is enthusiastically debated how the system can collect the citizens’ opinions in best possible way. They work very well for local
affairs, but can be improved for more technical issues that affect higher
jurisdictions.
We are Gaia
There is a new global awareness that we are all part of the whole. The linear
thinking in science, society, culture, and politics has disappeared. Empathetic, holistic, systemic and interconnected thinking is considered the only possible perspective for appropriate decisions. To govern is to change, but also
to preserve the planet for future generations.
As an epilogue
The new government system is based on trust and production of empathy.
The main challenges: not to leave anyone behind, ensure cohesion, foster
reflective and transforming dialogues, avoid easy consensus, promote diversity, humiliate no one, constantly learn about new ideas.
Some years have gone by and world entropy has decreased. Even if major
damage has been caused to Gaia, the planet will slowly recover. The capacity of self-management is improving daily. There is a healthy optimism in the
air, without self-complacency. We still have much work to do, and much future ahead.
76
How lucky that we put our differences aside to create a better world. Crie Futuros Comics Contest. Alejo Curuchet Salvarey, Uruguai, 2011.
TAGS: city planning – architecture – design – fashion
– energy – neighborhoods – planned – cities –
ecovillages – transportation – distribution
4
Inhabit, Move, Circulate
“If we don’t change our direction we’re likely to end up where we’re headed.”
Chinese proverb.
78
desirable new world
flection of the apparent chaos from
which creativity originates. Which desires for the future have guided the design of our cities for the last thirty years?
Science and Mechanics, USA, 1932.
CITIES1
The present is the outcome of past
dreams: it takes quite a while for ideas
to come off the drawing board and become gain life.
Those uniform, closed, aseptic, mirrored skyscrapers were dreams of the
first half of the 20th century. Today, in
2042, the city reflects the dreams of the
21st century: they are fun, irregular, colorful, diverse, changeable, with organic
shapes and materials. An external re-
Happiness
Cars are no longer the central axis in the
design of cities, which now focus on Nature, on people, and on how to make
them happier. This, by the way, has
been a public commitment since the
4DxT GNH2 – the four dimensional index of Gross National Happiness – the
new way of measuring the wealth of
nations. Studies on the subject revealed
the mistake made in the 20th century,
which confused privacy and autonomy
with isolation and individualism bringing about much unhappiness. In the
communities (formerly called shanty
towns) groups of children playing in al2
GNH – Index of Gross National Happiness, replaces
GDP – Gross Domestic Product. Here our concept of 4DxT is
added: indicators organized to balance the four
dimensions: economic, environmental, socio-political, and
symbolic-cultural. See article “Nobel defends the creation
of a Happiness Index”, Folha de São Paulo, April 3, 2012.
1
We start from here, because since 2011, most of the
world´s population has been concentrated in cities.
http://www1.folha.uol.com.br/ambiente/1070841-premionobel-de-economia-defende-indice-de-felicidade.shtml
Square Energy = Movement. RAI, 2008.
leys, doors open and receptive, people
talking on every corner contribute to
the GNH 4DxT; nets of collaborative, affectionate, and lively relationships.
However, behind the threatening,
guarded walls of the wealthy neighborhoods, the GNH 4DxT decreases, because high levels of loneliness, boredom, loss of autonomy were recorded
due to excessive protection and the in-
Profession: Processor of Emotions
While flying over the cities to take a poll on
people´s emotions and feelings, the processor
of emotions has the power to seize them and
distribute them according to demand, taking
more joy and amusement to those who are sad
and depressed.
Raymundo Barros and Helio Fernandez Júnior,
São Paulo, Brazil, 2009.
I N H A BI T, M O V E , CI RCU L AT E
big hit on these Squares is the
weekly Thematic Party, always tied to the culture and
tradition of each location in
town, which promotes social
mixing and contact.
Much has been done to
counterbalance the “antibeggar architecture” that
prevailed at the beginning of
Floor that absorbs the energy of movement / Generator that concentrates
the 21st century, for example,
and distributes / party-operated Telecenter / Party: generates energy.
by turning squares into empRAI, 2008.
ty and cemented spaces to
prevent the homeless from using benchability to feel satisfied with what they
es, shade, and the likes. Once city planhave. Much has been done to straighten
ners realized that by doing this they
out this misunderstanding by diminishwere throwing out the baby with the
ing isolation and increasing autonomy.
bath water, they started devoting themTens of Energy = Movement
selves to “oldeities”, such as the ReinSquares have greatly contributed to this
vention of Gazebos.
achievement. These are open places
At risk of extinction due to poor
where people run, dance, and turn their
services rendered, Publicity started to
surplus calories into energy that is abperform more accordingly with its
sorbed by the special floor3 and supplied
name, “Publi + City”, and to focus on
to the TransTeleMedia Public Centers. A
boosting citizenship instead of consumerism, using all its enormous talent
3
Floor - http://springwise.com/weekly/2010-01-27.
htm#pavegen. Nightclub with a floor that generates
and quality in campaigns and actions
energy: http://www.springwise.xom/eco_sustainability/
to make the city truly public and susdance_powered_eco_nightclub
79
tainable. One of these successes was
the “CONFIDENCE AND CREDIT” Campaign, since shortly after the Great
Bubble of 2013, it became clear that
the solution was not bank credit, without backing at that time, but rather,
people confidence. Quotes, images,
and stories about people who believed
in it, made it possible – wherever it
was extensively used – to counteract
the widespread fear and distrust dis-
Reinvention of Gazebos
Today, gazebos and squares are fulfilling their
functions.
Those round constructions that look like buckets in squares are no longer empty, but full of
people instead, making speeches, expressing
their ideas, and bands are playing. The square
of the future is a very special place, where one
can sit under a tree, on a bench and meet new
people. The gazebos are symbols of all that
squares and urban life can offer: a meeting
place of differences, space for creation, exchange, fun, a place where anything can be
displayed. Over the past few years, the Square
has become a place of synthesis. People are finally occupying the streets.
Claudia Cezar, Matheus Gropp, Harold Hellmutt,
Sergio Napchan. Brazil, 2009.
80
desirable new world
The Renaissance of
the 21st Century1
Jorge Wilheim, Sao Paulo, Brazil, 2008.
Architect, city planner, public manager, writer.
My proposal is a new civilizatory and cultural cycle: the Renaissance of
the 21st Century. Its economic regimen would, in the future, be called the Market Socialism or Social Capitalism and it would be monitored by a new Social
Contract signed by the State, the Market, the Producers (manual or intellectual
workers) and by a society that in an organized way would “occupy” its space
as development actor.
To make this century become that of knowledge and creativity it is important to
know how to transfer data and information supplied by computer programs to
the level of knowledge, and this capability is a challenge to the universities. The
new Renaissance requires a cross-sectional and universal outlook, that is: the
Renaissance person integrates different data and disciplines of knowledge and
these disciplines provide, in addition to his specialty, a base easily understood
and integrated with the knowledge of other specialties. Teaching institutions
will offer subjects that are common denominators, ensuring, for example, that
the biologist talks to the city planner, the engineer to the physician, because all
share common views in the Renaissance outlook.
The new Renaissance is based on a worldview, a cosmogony which uses the current globalization, reinterpreted at a human and social level, to explain the occurring phenomena. This outlook demands the establishment of a set of human
1
In Create Futures, Culture for Peace.
values. In the 15th century, these values were courage/ boldness and conduct/
ethics. In 50 years, they might become: the courage to create, the spirit of solidarity, democratic ethics, enhancement of knowledge and learning of pleasure (although there is the pleasure of learning, the inversion of words indicates that
perhaps an effort may be forthcoming to increase the quality of personal life).
This Renaissance will be more easily observed in cities with a healthy environment, a social integration that reduce the current gap of opportunities, an urban landscape that meets our aesthetic point of view, improving the quality of
life of the urban dweller. The public space will be enhanced as the main meeting
point for a solidary society. On the subject, it should be noted, for example, that
if the children on the streets are a problem, rather than take them off the streets
we should design streets for children... Books will be left all around, such as at
bus stops, for someone to pick them up and read them. And people who teach
something to someone will be appreciated and be called master citizens.
The new Renaissance will not come unless we build it. There are many actors on
the urban stage who prefer retardation, if not retrogression. This construction is
a political project and requires a generous outlook, creativity, sense of human
and social solidarity.
81
seminated by the mass media for over
a century.
Another interesting case was
public art using optical illusion, showing that everything is a matter of perspective; we choose what we wish to
see. From that arose the amusing
R ethink!! Sidewalks to stimulate a
change of outlook: when you walk on
them, lights turn on under your feet
displaying the following proposition:
“Are you sure? Think about this idea
again from the opposite point of view:
how can the problem be the solution,
how can today’s misfortune bring
tomorrow’s good fortune? “
The Forums for Consumption Reduction reversed the use of advertising: instead of creating
the desire to consume a product, it discloses, in
an objective manner, what is behind it: the product’s function, origins, meaning. This strategy
also aims at overcoming that inner feeling of
emptiness that compels people to buy what
they don’t need. In this way, all association with
status, success, and belonging to privileged
groups was eliminated.
Edgar Morales and Jose Aldana, Guadalajara,
Mexico, 2010.
Time
A key for happiness is to optimize time,
since the things that make us happier
happen in time: relating, creating, understanding. In the past, we directed
our efforts to gaining space; now we
want to save time – and the city and its
services have been thus reorganized.
Airports, for example, were unsustainable, because they were built according
to the space rationale: each airline with
its boarding gates, resulting in kilometric and deserted airports. Or even abandoned ones, like in Spain, in the early
2010s4. Today, the rationale is to share
all spaces, better administrating time
and thus saving resources of all kinds.
The factories have shifts used by different enterprises: and because what singles out each enterprise are its intangibles, like brand and concept, they are
free to share space, inputs, and equipment. Saving time is not only the motto
of all urban planning and real-estate
developments, but it also encourages
4
See research in Basurama.org, on the metabolism of
cites: many new and already abandoned airports http://
www.6000km.org/#3
A kiss or a vase?
the creation of apps to facilitate home
offices, job hunting in the neighborhood, and reduced commuting time.
Believe it or not, up to the twenties, in apartment buildings or urban
blocks, residents performed all their
tasks by themselves! Shopping, cleaning, repairs, children and elderly care;
none of this was shared, like today,
thanks to all the apps that group people by affinity and needs within a giv-
82
desirable new world
en neighborhood. The result was that
back then, people did not work to live,
but lived to work. The biggest losers
were children, because young parents
were caught up in a vicious circle: working too much, because being unable to
take care of their children on their own,
they had to pay for the outsourced
affection with “babysitters” – persons
who merely watched over children. Today, they have been replaced by the
professional Poly Caregiver, a person
with a degree in Curiosity, Collaborative Games, and Enthusiasm. Note that
this took place before the Program of
Male Affection, aimed at involving
more men in care activities, one of the
answers found to enhance the culture
of sustainability.
Interdependence
Since 2014, when the post-Rio+ 20
premises were finally implemented, Interdependence has been the essential,
overruling word.
We are aware that, just as in Nature, everything in our lives is interconnected, so solutions must be systemic.
For example, this strongly affects security and violence. Investments in gated
walls, guards, and guns were replaced
by massive investment in education
and culture, mirroring the success of cities like Medellin, Colombia5 that once
fought against drug trafficking.
The Interdependence logic resulted
in drastic change of public management
priorities, which no longer focused primarily on infrastructure, the “hardware”
part, and began to invest in people and
processes, the “software” part. This
seems quite logical, because hardware
does not work without software. Fewer
monumental engineering works, more
education and research, less focus on enterprises producing goods and more on
providing services – after all, when other
countries besides China6 adopted the
Creative Economy as a strategic priority,
5
40% of the official budget is invested in education
and culture http://elpais.com/diario/2011/09/10/
catalunya/1315616842_850215.html
6
In China, Creative Economy and Green Economy
have been strategic national priorities since the 2011 – 2016
Five Year Plan. http://www.worldbank.org/content/dam/
Worldbank/document/China-2030-complete.pdf
Profession: Official Caretaker and
Territorial Caretakers
Representatives of specialized civil society organizations that participate and represent collectives from certain territories in relevant themes.
They conduct and define a plan of action for the
territory in partnership with the Official Caretaker (today’s mayor). They carry out the plan in
their jurisdiction by combining public funds with
intangible resources (knowledge and the like)
provided by private initiatives.
Created during the Innovation in New
Economics Workshop, carried out by
“Fundação Avina”, October 2010.
the shift from the era of HAVING towards the era of USING became evident.
That was how a large portion of the
housing demand was supplied, pulling
along issues such as security, transportation, and social equity. Aware that the
housing deficit was lower than the
number of vacant dwellings, a process to
occupy the USW was carried out, since
vacant dwellings were also considered
Optecnia: Nature and Culture
without a separation
Jacques Dezelin, São Paulo,Brasil, 2012.
Filmmaker, independent researcher on economics.
“Optecnia” is the name created, in the absence of any other, to identify the
socio-bio-technological organism to which man belongs, and upon which he is
dependent as from his birth. This because all of his biological functions depend
on technological extensions, be it a spear to hunt for food, an animal or plant
species domesticated for nourishment or clothing, or a bullet train to move
around. The socio-technological environment is an exo-organic extension and
thanks to it the limits imposed by genetically programmed biology are extended by the OPtions offered by TECHNOlogy; our 5km/hour walking pace is
extended to the 20km/hour of the domesticated horse, to the 100 of the car
and the 800 of the airplane; tele-phone and tele-vision expand our hearing
and vision on a scale that is commonplace nowadays; energy, food, digestion
rely on networks ranging from oil wells and refiners, power stations and networks of electricity, water and sewage. The cities, cultivated fields, roads are
technical extensions of the organic needs of each “individual” of the human
race, who without them cannot possibly exist - and vice versa.
The name was created to describe and explain this biological phenomenon,
and is composed of:
OPT from the verb to Opt, which shows that technology allows the exercise
of free will, delivering us from the bonds of genetic biology.
TECN (Techno = art, craft), which shows that human societies invented the
83
skilled work, the craft whose outcome are products of technological organs,
created as an extension and expansion of our individual biological potentials,
which grants our release from the slow biological evolution, since the inventions allows rapid and more efficient solutions.
Thus, an artificial physiology was created, in a curious paradox that extraordinarily favors the variety of options of the “people” integrated and developed in it. The single species not genetically programmed, in an increasing
part of its functional activities, the human being integrated in the Optecnia
may choose his way of life in a diversity of which today, as “clicking” beings,
we all bear witness.
The study of biological reality, so far unnamed, which comprises Optecnia,
has been developed in recent years, mainly from the so-called “ecological”
standpoint, mobilizing researchers of Nature and inventors of technologies.
We believe that scientific research should have as its core reference the allotment of human time, and how in this allotment the payment system played
and plays a role of extraordinary importance and as such it has to be studied.
In the author’s experience, if the most elementary premises of the scientific
method were applied to financial “science” much of what is being taught
would have to be excluded, with severe damage to the financial myths that,
like religions, played and play a huge role in creating our experiential reality.
84
desirable new world
to be USW: Urban Solid Waste7. The real-estate market began to act as the Facilitator of Housing: mediating relationships with owners, renovations, and
space adaptation and their financing,
with the possibility of payment in 4DxT
values (payment through community
service, time, knowledge).
City overpasses transformed into leisure areas. Angela Léon, São Paulo, 2012.
Transported Hotels and Cities. Bruna Lima, Oi Futuro,
Rio de Janeiro, 09/06/2009.
7
See work of the Basurama group proposing that
everything without use is SUW (overpasses, public and
private spaces) http://basurama.org/destacado/
publicacion-rus-residuos-urbanos-solidos-basura-yespacio-publico-en-latinoamerica-2008%E2%80%93-2010
Other Solid Urban Wastes were
given new functions (“software”) for
their structures (“hardware”), as it was
the case of many monstrous elevated
expressways that were converted into
gathering spaces, with open air markets for food and local products sales
or recreation areas for the population.
In cities distant from the sea, the greatest success was: the overpasses were
turned into beaches and the supporting pillars into open air art galleries
and playgrounds.
Still under the software rationale,
all through those years we saw the expansion of the concept of technology
and innovation to include and value
“soft” technologies and innovations:
everything related to intelligence and
function, such as socio-cultural technologies, management, innovation processes and design.
Focusing on interdependence, the
“metabolic” approach to development
is expanded, considering that each human organization is an organism, with
its various physiological systems. One of
them is the concept of Optechnia8 that
proposes the technological environment
as an extension, or complement to human functions: satellites complement
our senses; the Web complements our
mind, the sewage system complements
our digestion.
8
An interesting concept developed by Jacques
Dezelin, in several publications, see box attached.
FLOWS
Interdependence also implies thinking
about flows: if everything is interconnected, each obstructed process interferes with the next. Calculations made
in 2015, for example after the problems
with the World Cup held in Brazil, in
2014 revealed steep losses caused by
the lack of urban flow impossibility to
move about the city (transportation);
inadequate knowledge flow (inadequate training); lack of business oppor-
85
tunities flow, which were concentrated
in large companies, especially foreigncapital enterprises, resulting in the outpour of funds abroad, rather than stimulating local MSEs. The notion of flow
leads to the rethinking of the very notion of “dwelling”. Why not live in
houses, or even cities, that can be
moved to other places9 where they can
9
See the interesting work by the Dutch architect who
proposes floating houses. http://waterstudio.nl/home
86
desirable new world
be plugged into a network for water,
power, and information services?
DIVERSITY
A much greater emphasis was given to
diversity, remembering that differences
promote evolution10. Recognize and celebrating diversity has become one of
the vectors of all planning, including
that of cities. Every angle has many
depths, textures, and reliefs. The symmetry of planning straight lines and uniform buildings is no longer the city planners’ guideline. Phew! What a delight
no longer having those endless, boring
rows of houses or same-looking buildings. In the past, the city was the place
of the invisible and anonymous; today,
everything does its own storytelling. The
windows are asymmetrical and reflect
who is behind them11; buildings, especially the public ones – often built to
confuse and alienate citizens – now tell
what goes on inside, and how; side10
As Darwin points out in his Theory of Evolution
11
As proposed by the ingenious Hundertwasser http://
www.hundertwasser.at/index_en.php
Thematic cities
A way to decentralize cities is the creation of
thematic cities, following the example of the
thematic parks, which are set according to different themes, such as Legends and Stories,
Places of the World, Activities, Colors. Transportation inside and outside them is by rail and free
of charge. Communication is through Internet.
Carlos Ariel Barocelli and Esteban Tolj,
Argentina, 2010.
Carlos Ariel Barocelli and Esteban Tolj, Argentina, 2010.
walks, which obviously have large earth
areas to absorb water and prevent imperviousness, are planted with scents
and colors, like tea herbs and spices.
Diversity is also reflected in the
types of business and services provided
in the city: the focus is on creative economy and organization in collaborative
MSSSE (Micro and Small Social and Sustainable Enterprises whose purpose is
the common good)12 networks. More
details in the following chapters.
12
See examples of the B Corporations, that already
have this scope http://www.bcorporation.net/about or of
Social Business : http://www.artemisia.org.br/
In the neighborhoods
Sidewalks planted with seasonings.
RAI and Adriana Klisys, 2008.
Talent Exchange Center
Today, the Talent Exchange Center was inaugurated with a great celebration. This center will
operate every day of the week. There, each person may choose the period(s) when talent exchanging is more convenient. You! who can
cook, sing, model: bring your talent and take
another home. Everybody has a talent.
Magda Lucia de Lima, Hélia Mana and Regina
Tavares, Brazil, 05/11/2010.
An “oldeity” desired by many and finally achieved is a more intense community
life, where everything is exchanged,
communitarian, shared. The Sharing
Workshops13 are places for collective
production and interdisciplinary experiment, open to the entire community.
There, people encounter, exchange of
ideas, knowledge, tools and materials,
as well as solidarity-based work, are
promoted. Next to them, there is a
Warehouse of Exchange, for exchanging raw materials, tools and products,
where people can donate what they
have to offer and take what they need.
Within the logic of abundance, everything taken is renewed with the new
creations that originate from them.
Each community, school, condominium, and community center encourages and promotes making games
and toys out of recycled material14.
13 http://criefuturos.com/futuros_criados/
Encuentro_Taller
87
Games are developed to foster inclusion and not exclusion, also teaching
the values of cooperation, constructive
negotiation, creativity, motivation, and
achievement.
Neighborhoods also have Multilanguage Art & Entertainment spaces,
adaptable to different artistic languages, which integrated form a circuit that
allows the overall production to be appreciated and circulate. To promote
greater contact and flow, these Spaces
are located next to Markets of Organic
Urban Production, which distribute
produce grown in city vegetable gardens that have become widespread
since the year 2014, as well as its complementary products. In all the spaces,
exchanges and payments may be made
using 4DxT currencies, that is, with
economic, social, cultural, or environmental currencies.
All buildings are coated with paint
that turns any surface into a solar energy receptor15 which, coupled to technology that prevents energy waste in
14 http://www.wikifuturos.com/Futuros/
15 http://www.wikifuturos.com/Futuros/Solar energy
Construindo_brinquedos_e_um_mundo_
for household and transportation means supply_
88
desirable new world
Cars and houses painted
with ink that captures
solar energy. Fabiana
Victor, Nilton de Lima
and Giovane Mendonça,
São Paulo, 2009.
transmission, assures that the energy
generated will meet all the of energy/
electricity requirements: light, electroelectronics etc.
Most of the water comes from rain
harvesting, not only in buildings, in
tanks, but also in public spaces, inspired
by the work of architect Gaudí for the
Guell Park. 16 On top of buildings there
are open areas for gardens and events,
whose permeable floor covering collects and filters the water prior to distribution. Note that even though this idea
seems so obvious, it took almost 150
years to be put in practice. Other obvious points long overdue in household
water management: washing machines
that use the same water that is filtered
and recycled17 in adjacent containers, so
that a washing machine that used to
consume about 4,500 liters of water per
month now consumes only 15; the water used in baths and sinks filtered and
stored for uses that do not require
100% clean water, such as plant watering, outdoor cleaning; or toilet flushing
(for those who still don´t have access to
permaculture dry toilets).
In every neighborhood there are
needs and desires networks that are exchanged. See the interesting list found
by one of our researchers.
All forms of coexistence are more
fluid and permeable; therefore, if a
17
Already exists, invented by Rubens de Oliveira Filho
16 http://en.wikiarquitectura.com/index.php/
http://www2.tvcultura.com.br/reportereco/materia.
Park_G%C3%BCell
asp?materiaid=124
OFFERED
DESIRED
Time to go for a walk with
the dog on Sunday
mornings;
Company to get to know the
city and to travel;
Playing with 6 to 8-year
old children on holidays;
Company for watching
movies;
Company to go dancing;
Spooning and fondling in
sleep;
Five o’clock tea with
elderly people;
Foot massage on Saturdays;
Tea with handicrafts,
movies, and chatting;
Vegetable garden,(having
and keeping one) and
offering produce to
neighbors;
Taking care of plants in
other people’s homes;
Weekends without
technology;
Book-lending;
Cultural chats;
Part of personal
production of: bananas,
tangerines, tomatoes, etc;
Chat groups to exchange
information, gossip, and the
like;
Fertilizer for your
vegetable garden.
Bike-borrowing on Sundays.
Beatriz Telles and Elaine Ribeiro de Oliveira, São Paulo, 2010.
neighborhood is starting from scratch,
rather than start by raising walls, as in
the past, it should begin in interaction
with its surroundings. First, check what
the common dreams are, because they
might generate bonds of trust that will
later be strengthened through shared
cultural and creative activities. When
there is trust, we are ready for the next
step: creating entrepreneurial opportunities that are identified through an
initial mapping of local knowledge
and practices. The priority is to promote interaction and exchange: the
city has transformed the shell of its
walls into skin: social fabric woven
from relationship networks.
In the Countryside...
Today, many people live in ecovillages.
Ecovillages of all possible and imaginable kinds, where communities organize themselves by affinity. As such,
there are old people´s ecovillages, rockers’ ecovillages, vegans’ ecovillages, deluxe ecovillages, and so on. But above
all, there are ecovillages of a multi,
trans, pluri character (multicultural,
transnational, multifunctional), where
all possible combinations co-exist, since
the time of the “mono” activities and
living is over!
Ecovillages were widely adopted,
because we are aware that the coherent and competent solutions and possibilities of shared management and governance are possible on a smaller scale.
The solution lies in the local aspects.
These ecovillages are organized
into networks, where there is exchange
and interchange of services, products,
and skills. These networks also function
as a form of political representation, as
they continuously gain in size and scale:
moving from the local to reach Macro
Socio-Environmental Ecosystems (that
were once called a “nation”, which today no longer have borders and are defined by socio-cultural characteristics),
until they become global networks.
Exchanges are made within these
networks by using a variety of currencies with convertibility and parity
among them. These currencies also correspond to values on the social, cultural
and environmental dimensions, for example: time, collaboration, diversity,
reputation. 89
Within a radius of 120 km, small clusters of
homes and conviviality coexist, where families
carry out agro-economic and sustainable activities. With community vegetable gardens, their
food supply is self-sustainable. They have integrated culture, education and health centers.
Power is generated right there by biomass technology that uses pulp or any other local vegetation. There is also a composting plant (solid
waste) that serves as fertilizer for the land. There
is a Logistics Center to wash, pack, and distribute agricultural production. And an Environmental Center that ensures preservation of the micro-climate: orchards, agroforestry, etc... The
nearest large city supplies the centers with general services, so no one needs to travel more
than once a week.
Maria Angêla Baria, Sergio M. Barbosa and
Renato Ribeiro, São Paulo, 2009.
90
desirable new world
Integrated System for Natural
Areas Protection
A law was passed providing for the recognition,
mapping, and delimitation of ecosystems and
natural areas´ fragments. The latter will be connected to promote biological exchange of seeds,
increased food availability, and greater protection
of wildlife and green areas, which will cover the
territory, bringing about greater diversity of use in
spaces where, today, urban, agricultural, and cattle breeding activities are massively prevalent.
Thiago Vinicius da Silva and Mariângela Portela
da Silva, São Paulo, 2009.
Laws have set the limits for city growth and decentralized production and distribution of products and services in areas of 30km², and small
businesses in areas of 2 square kilometers. Each
family should have an area of 600m ² to live and
plant, where all will have their own garden and
all the homesteads will have 50% of the ground
covered with earth and vegetation typical of the
region. Thus, in addition to facilitating water
drainage, families will live in contact with nature
and have better quality of life.
Francine Sayuri Segawa, Criar workshop, 2009.
Moving Around
Today, there is a prevalence of bicycles
and their variants, for instance, those
that rely on a solar-powered battery
and have roofing made of recycled materials, with UVA and UVB protection.
Weary of waiting for official decisions,
bike activists from several cities, based
on existing studies, organized night
meetings to paint the cycle lanes needed. They were quickly occupied by
thousands of people who had long
waited to move around safely. Cycle
lanes “hacked” by the population have
been more respected than expected,
because they are beautiful and diverse,
since they were painted with the help
of graffiti and urban artists.
It all began by drawing on experience from the early 21st century with
bicycles belonging to the municipality,
which could be borrowed and returned
at predetermined points, usually near
public transport stations. Later, this was
extended to other types of Public Vehi-
When one of these approaches another, it is
possible to chat and exchange files while driving,
creating a network of relationships and environmentally correct cars.
Jessica Nascimento, Criar Institute,
São Paulo, 2009.
cles, which are now for “use” and not
for “possession”. With a Single Transportation Ticket, any person can use a
vehicle and drop it off at the many stops
available, typically one per block. These
vehicles are also coated with paint that
captures and stores solar energy and
Building streets, building sidewalks, building
cars? How old-fashioned… Public transportation has evolved greatly since the convergence
of it all. Today there are moving lanes. Now it’s
the street that moves and not the car...Slower
lanes for senior citizens and faster ones for
those who like stronger emotions.
Anonymous, Wikifuturos´s archive, 2010.
After anxious waiting, the people of the city of
São Paulo will participate in a mega event to inaugurate moving walkways over the Tiete and
Pinheiros rivers. At every kilometer, we shall see
a service and convivial station focusing on the
modern fishing station, with digital and holographic fishing rods.
Zenir Ramalho, Maria Lins and Graziela
Valentino, Brazil, 5/7/2010.
have a system for transforming and
storing the kinetic energy released by
their movement. Most of them are
derived from mini and small cars that
were common in the past.
Another major change in transportation, brought about by the shift
from the logic of form (vehicles) to
that of function (transport) was the
creation of the Moving Walkway,
replacing many of the city streets, an
old and sensible dream.
91
We will be flying to school! We throw a CD on
the ground and it becomes a flying saucer to fit
our size. Carlos and Cristian, Barcelona 2009.
End of the 19th Century: Imagining Life in the Year 2000
Coming and Going:
A Sustainable Right
A new subway station was inaugurated and it
looks like it is going to be a model for others to
come. Entirely built with environmentally-friendly materials, it has an ultra-sensitive floor, which
as a result of the friction of the users’ feet, generates the energy required to operate the station.
The train tracks are made from recycled weapons and the wagons´ seats of coconut fiber. And
hail to the future! Roberta Alves de Souza and
Iuri Barbosa Ribeiro, São Paulo, 04/20/2010.
Pain and suffering. Racism. Deaths. All this is over. There are people that don’t even know what a disease is, don’t understand the meaning of wars. We are a new world. We are better people, but what
matters is that we are what we are. Crie Futuros Comics Contest. Nicolás Rios, Uruguai, 2011.
Comics and Illustration Contest Crie Futuros, 2011
It took place in partnership with Ocus Media and
Montevideo Comics, from Uruguay and with the UDG
Virtual (University of Guadalajara), Mexico. The proposed
theme was related to the Millennium Development Goals.
We selected a few comics for the book and the other
winners are in the right, with the corresponding link. Thank
you and congratulations!
Geraldo Antonio Barba Rios, Mexico
http://criefuturos.com/futuros_criados/
Concurso_M%C3%A9xico
Pablo Carrera Piritto, Uruguay
Aprendiendo_a_volar_con_la_raza_humana
Bruno Garcia Olivo, Uruguay
http://criefuturos.com/futuros_criados/Un_Cambio
Cristina Hare, Brasil
No_futuro_ser%C3%A1_Gol!
Denise da Costa, Brazil
http://criefuturos.com/futuros_criados/Ave_da_paz
TAGS: anesthesia - body - consumption - cultivation - empathy family farms - food - fountains health - hospitals - joy - medical
- nature - nutrition - four elements - recycle - relationships remedies - sensitivity - sources - take care - thought urban - vegetable garden - waste - water
5
Care, Nourish, Regenerate
“Never doubt that a small group of committed people can change the world,
indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.”
Margaret Mead
94
D E S irable new world
Feeling With:It is difficult to determine when we beOur Nature and Nature
PLANET
Light
energy
Atmosphere
Water
System
Earthly
(Geos)
Magma
(Inner fire)
individual
Nervous
System
fire – intuition
air – tought
water – Emotion
earth – feeling
Respiratory
System
Circulatory
System
Motor
System
Metabolic
fire – drive
(inner)
came aware that TO CARE was the verb
that should guide our actions. Most
probably, perception concurred to the
realization that sustainability would only
happen if we were actually capable to
“feel more” and “feel with”. To feel
one’s own body and feel its resemblance
to the planet´s body. To feel our nature
with Nature, and realize the correlation
and interdependence between them. As
if our circulatory system corresponded to
the water system of the Earth – clogging
rivers with garbage and waste is like
clogging the arteries with junk food that
does not nourish; polluting the Earth’s
atmosphere and our lungs; benefitting
from the creative energy of the sun relates to the creative energy of the mind.
This type of approach – which seeks
to sense the world in a concise and analogical way1 – has expanded in recent
1
These analogical studies are part of a survey I
carried out from 1991 to 1992, when I was awarded the
Vitae Fellowship.The objective was to find ways to close the
Relationship between the four elements, basic psychological functions, physiological systems, and planetary components.
Lala Deheinzelin, Vitae research, 1992.
gap between abstract/theoretic and concrete/practical
elements.The interest in the Intangible/Tangible
relationship was already there.
Care , N ourish , Regenerate
years due to the need to understand
and decide by intuition, since the velocity of changes is ever increasing. They
bring about association exercises to
stimulate a comprehensive outlook and
creativity. By analogy with our “layered”
physical makeup and its association with
the four elements, we are able, for example, to correlate the latter with the
basic psychological functions, as formulated by Gustav Jung, which further
point out the stages of a process.
BB First we have Fire: In the individual´s
Metabolic System, and Magma, inside
the Earth, which corresponds to the psychological function of Drive. That is to say:
processes like, for instance, education, or
creating a sustainable world that must begin
with desire, motivation (that is why our book
is called Desirable New World2). Desire is our
driving engine, without it we would get
nowhere, it shows us why and what for
we are doing what we are doing.
BB Then come the Motor System in the
body and Geos, the earthly, which corre2
The title is also a counterpoint to “Brave New
World”, by Aldous Huxley, 1932, that portrays a tragic
outlook of the future.
95
spond to the Earth element, tied to the
tion), for example, education or even
Feeling that supplies us with information
the construction of a sustainability culabout what we are dealing with.
ture. Really deep changes were
BB The Water System in the planet and
achieved, when both started with motithe Circulatory System correspond to the
vating, working on the desire to change
Water element, linked to emotion (in
(this was the objective of the Criar Fumotion, in movement) that helps us underturos Movement with its desirable fustand the when, i.e., the process over time.
tures), then broadening perception
BB Atmosphere and Respiratory System
through the five senses, resulting, for
correspond to the AIR associated to
instance, in greater ability to “read”
Thought, which guides
us, positions us, and is
linked to the Where in
our process.
BB And finally, back to
Fire, now the Light and
Energy fire, which corresponds to the Nervous
System, the intuitive
intelligence that shows
us the “Hows.”
It is remarkable
that, until the beginning of the 21st century, most processes
a lready began with

Relationship between the four elements, basic psychological functions, and stages
thought (emphasis on
of action. Lala Deheinzelin, Vitae Research, 1992.
content and informa-
96
the world, then attention to emotion,
for example, through affection.
When something affects us, we
start to act and eventually come to
thought, but thought grounded in desire, experience, and feeling – which reduces the risk of allowing us to operate
immersed in a world of disconnected
and meaningless ideas and information.
Contest awarding the Best ideas for use of
auto parts. USA, 1932.
FROM RECYCLING TO EMPATHY: INSIDE OUT
SUSTAINABILITY
in the boom of enterprises and consortia
working in this field, particularly between 2015 and 2025. Recycled materials were widely used in general construction, in an effort to find good use for the
tragic legacy of the 20th century, with its
misguided policies that led to the destruction of railway networks, to lack of
investment in public transportation, and
where everything revolved around the
centrality of the automobile. This misconception was, moreover, strongly
spurred by our c ollective dreams. Look-
In the primordial times of sustainability
the focus was on the tangible, material,
and attention centered on controlling
C02 emissions, saving energy, and managing wastes. In the first decades of the
21st century, curiously enough, these subjects were almost synonymous to sustainability. After Rio + 20, in 2012, the
need to overcome this
idea became evident, beLife in the year 2000 = cars! France, the 1930´s. See at www.paleofuture.com.
cause many institutions
and governments limited
themselves to it and did
not change their processes and socio-cultural relations, while, nevertheless,
claiming to be “sustainable.” Undeniably, these
were important years for
environment care, and
years when everything
had to do with “recycling”, which is perceived
97
ing at the past of the future,
sectors. Artists played a mawhat catches our eyes are cars,
jor role in this empathy
of all kinds and shapes.
training, especially those inWhat to do with all the
volved with theater and
remains of these vehicles? Since
dance: regardless of area or
the beginning of the 20 th
theme, people played theatrical games by putting themcentury, it was clear that this
selves in other people´s
would become a serious probshoes. Personally feeling
lem and to use them to make
like planted earth within
toys could be a solution. Tons of
the monoculture system;
tires had to be recycled and, be3
putting themselves in the
sides toys they could be made
place of that teacher you
into road pavement and incorcould not stand; feeling like
porated into other materials
Action of the Coletivo Basurama utilizing SUW (solid urban waste). Lima, Peru, 2009.
a stomach being washed
widely used in civil construction,
with soft drinks; feeling like
and designer objects.
experience their surroundings and thus
a good idea that nobody accepts; beBut when we begin to think of
be ready to act as co-creators and not
cause it would lead to a change in rousustainability, also “from the inside
just observers of life. In schools this was
tine. Feeling as if they were the wall of
out”, with the awareness of our body,
intense, bringing about a change in
a house painted the color of dirt (to
the sustainable practice proved more
education that increasingly led teaching
prevent smudging...); feeling unable to
effective than just taking care of the exwhat really matters 4. Children who
move arms or legs; listening to the diaternal environment.
logue between a permaculture house
Many mechanisms have been used,
grew up with this profound capacity for
and another with features dictated by
beginning with the activation of Empaempathy became those who actually
the massified real-estate industry. And,
thy in people to develop their ability to
implemented the recent changes, in all
finally, feeling as light as a dancer, or as
one who enjoys autonomy, because he
3
See an example in the city of Lima, using “Solid
4
See Project with this same scope from Ashoka,
or she works collaboratively and will alUrban Waste” : an unfinished bridge.
Network of Social Entrepreneurs.
98
ways have the support of others. There
are very interesting registers: executives
performing drama exercises who put
themselves in the place of their various
stakeholders, at a time when large corporations had to break up.
Feeling like water was the easiest,
since we are indeed made up of 75%
water, just like the planet. Can you
imagine? Hordes of tourists in tears on
beaches filled with junk? Traffic jams
on the freeways alongside rivers becoming even more unbearable, since
no one could look at the polluted river
without experiencing what it really
meant? So much crying had a positive
outcome and, today, city rivers are
parks and surfers lead task forces to
clean the beaches.
Communicators collaborated to
render visible and evident everything
that was related to each product and
that used to be hidden: the “before”
(where and how it was made) and
“after” (its cultural and environmental
legacy). For example, detailed descriptions of the contents of processed foods
that looked a lot like a witch potion´s
The Tiete river, in São Paulo, is now a leisure park! Angela Léon, 2011.
recipe: from blood to beetle shells.
The Talking Shelves were very effective, and an emblematic case was the
elimination of water packaged in small
bottles, 15 years ago. When you picked
up a bottle from the shelf you would
hear it say: “Hello! I am one of tens of
billions of bottles consumed annually, at
a cost of hundreds of billions of dollars
that could be invested elsewhere, such
as, for instance, to solve the water distribution problem of the world “. Or “Hello! I cost five times more than my ‘lookalike’, for my cost includes the hiring of
a celebrity to make you believe that, if
you had a retouched slim body like hers,
you would be happier”. Or a cauliflower saying, “Hello! I am organic and was
grown by a micro enterprise of families
that used to be outcasts in large cities.”
Shortly after, the shelves stopped being
so politically correct and boring, and
started saying things with much more
humor and in a more effective way.
In the past, strategies to force consumption were allowed, as was the case
with supermarkets and shopping malls
that were designed to mislead; airports
exits leading into duty-free shops or
shelves filled with trivia and goodies
creating chutes that led to the cash registers. In these situations of strong compulsion to buy, mobile phone apps regulated consumption by playing the role
of a super ego for people who lacked
self-control: when you reached for some
candy, the app warned: “Do you really
want candy or is it a hug? Talk to the
person next in line because he or she is
tuned to the same frequency, and let it
go, it will only make you fat and give
you pimples! “ At the same time, when
it became obvious that the impulses
masked other deepest desires of consumers, the same apps helped to promote meetings, contacts, joy. One of
their functions: you selected a number
of things that interested you and when
somebody nearby was on the same frequency your phone would vibrate. Artificial, indeed, but necessary in those peculiar decades, when people were afraid
to relate to each other.
More recently we have seen “I’m
feeling...” mobile apps. Should you
want to interact with others or with
Feeling Panels (remember that the city
is interaction and conversation?), you
program your mobile phone with data
that, put together, will reflect your feelings for that day. The Feeling Panels
map out the feelings of those who pass
you by in the street and turn them into
visualizations5. Let’s say that every feeling is a colored dot and that the whole
reveals itself in shapes made up by the
united dots. This helps public officials
that are committed “to feel” the people
under their care, and promote a greater
sense of belonging by identifying those
with similar feelings. The Feeling Panels
also select quotations related to the
sensed feeling: “Nothing is more powerful than an idea whose time has
come” – Victor Hugo
Water We moved significantly ahead, when
our perception of and relationship with
our bodies changed and each one became fully aware of their choices regarding food, drink, movement. The
first change was in relation to water
and in most places we already have
rainwater harvesting, cisterns, water reuse, and sanitation, and dry toilets6. The
process was accelerated by the Young
Water Managers Program, where trainees from the university guide elementary and high school children to practice
and disseminate rational use of water.
The program, implemented shortly after Rio + 20, resulted from a partnership
6
5
Example: human emotions mapped on the Web and
99
See the experience of the Center for Popular Culture
and Development, which works to integrate the issues of
transformed into data visualizations, http://www.
water, energy, food, housing, work, education and culture
wefeelfine.org/
through the application of sociocultural technologies.
100
between the Education and Environment Departments (this kind of division
still existed, and it was not until an integrated and systemic action was introduced that these compartmentalized
sectors were eliminated) in association
with the Water and Sewage Utilities.
Some ideas have been particularly successful, such as those that used old PET
bottles to sterilize unhealthy water7, or
others where similar bottles were
placed in gutter systems, becoming water storage containers8.
Elimination of bottled water was
due to the adoption of refillable bottles. In fact, most of the food went back
to being sold in bulk and placed in containers brought by the users – an easy
“oldeity” that was quickly adopted and
resulted in lower prices, better space
utilization, production, and packaging
disposal. As far as water is concerned,
one of the most interesting benefits
was the relational aspect, thanks to an7
See one of the winners of the Social Technologies
Award. http://www.rc.unesp.br/ib/premiacao/premia.htm
8
http://www.likecool.com/Rain_Drops_by_Evan_Gant-
-Design--Home.html
The Public Fountain is
where everything happens!
Angela León, 2012.
other “oldeity”: the return to Public
Fountains, which turned them into a
space of conviviality and exchange. Flirting and dating, neighbor organizations,
work opportunities, everything happened near the fountains.
Some were playful and collaborative: on warm days, people would hold
hands and move around them and, the
more people and the faster the speed,
the higher the water jets rose, spraying
the surroundings9.
For cleaning and water renewal
there were a wide range of procedures,
ranging from the most technological to
9
This was carried out at the Zaragoza Universal
Exhibition, in 2008, with water as the subject, with
technology developed by Barcelona Media.
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Water is a common good, not a commercial one
The Virtual World Parliament yesterday sanctioned a law stating that corporations can no longer sell water
for their own profit. Factories and enterprises that in the late 20th and early 21st centuries tried to monopolize
natural sources will now have to give up their facilities and operational structure to be managed by cooperatives in their place of origin. These cooperatives are part of the new governance model, Participatory Meritocracy, that finally reached a third management model, a public and private mix. Seventy percent of the proceeds from the sale of water (which is done in a sustainable manner since, for example, bottles and glasses
of mineral water were abolished) will be invested in water system renewal programs, as determined by the
Waters Council. The remaining funds will be kept by the corporation’s cooperatives as compensation.
Claudia, São Paulo, Brazil, 2010.
others that investigated the purifying
potential of the waves produced by the
human brain and by language. This was
based on research developed by Dr. Masaru Emoto, who, in the 20th century,
did some very interesting work by submitting water to emotions and found
that meditation, music, and other forms
of language were able to produce positive changes in polluted water10.
10 http://www.masaru-emoto.net/
We Want More than
Just Food! 11
One of the reasons why we freed ourselves from the severe distress situations
in which humanity had been immersed
for millennia was our relationship with
“eating”, now replaced by nourishing
yourself with proper food or having fun
with gastronomy. Once accessibility to
food became a given, mainly industrialized food, the world entered into a
crisis: we acted just like our primitive
ancestors, eating everything in sight, as
if there were no tomorrow. We acted
11
Taken from the lyrics of the Brazilian group Titãs.
Do you want to get to know a culture? Drink
its culture-flavored juice. Breilin Montes and
Luis Santana, Dominican Republic, 2009.
Electronic Language
International Festival. Pedro,
Rio de Janeiro, 2011.
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Healthy and sustainable food is now a reality in condominium
Today we celebrate the success of the “Healthy and Sustainable Food” program. About 70% of city condos have implemented gardens, orchards, and gardens on the
roofs of their buildings for growing food, providing a production free of pesticides and inorganic fertilizers, while also offering the freshness and variety of products for a
healthier and self-standing life.
The distribution process is accomplished by electronic-mechanical means. Each unit selects the desired products and places their orders through an electronic billboard.
Food is collected just in time to ensure tasty, nutrient-filled, healthy and enjoyable meals.
The production of food is defined by a nutritionist that responds to the desires of the residents and organizes the growing activity.
This project made it possible to create community restaurants that prepare meals for the residents, preparing innovative recipes and facilitating the residents’ day. Besides improving the quality of food and meals, another benefit of this initiative was to provide better quality of life for condo residents.
Luciano Borghesi, Maria Cristina Rodrigues and Ricardo Rodrigues, Campinas, Brazil, 2010.
like c hildren, lured by the quantity, diversity and attractiveness of products
that were indeed ingested, but which
were far from nourishing. Dissatisfaction – the driver of change – was anesthetized, or stifled, in many ways, with
eating/drinking being one of them.
Studies have shown the role played
by poor eating/drinking habits in the
state of numbness and inertia in which
a large majority was plunged, which
worsened after the Great Bubble of
2013, whose impact resulted in more
obesity, and in the sale of more alcohol
and mood regulators with their consequent social and public health problems. In the first decade of this century,
the number of obese people had exceeded the number of the undernourished12 population, and it was sad to see
how obesity, cardio-vascular problems,
diabetes, and other conditions associated with poor eating habits helped to reduce the world population, contrary to
the earlier predictions that spoke of a
mushrooming population.
As soon as the concept of sustainability expanded, the “eating vs. nourishing” issue had to be seriously faced.
First, because it caused losses in the
economy and other 4DxT dimensions:
social, environmental, and cultural.
12 http://www.bbc.co.uk/portuguese/reporterbbc/
story/2006/08/060815_obesosxesfomeadosebc.shtml
Then, because it was essential to regaining physical and psychological fitness and well-being. Because to be personally sustainable was the key for
sustainability to gain momentum. Drastic regulatory measures had been adopted: junk food was shunned and,
similarly to old cigarette packs, the
damage caused was stressed through
text and image; taxes were levied on
edibles with calories but no nutrients,
and advertising encouraging consumption of sweets was banned. Food services in businesses, schools, and universities were forced to offer only fresh
and light food suitable for those who
sit for hours.
In the early twenties, pricing of all
products already included the 4DxT
cost. For example, beverages were formerly made from dyes, sugar, and water, and sold at a lower price per liter
than natural water! This distortion was
corrected when environmental (e.g.,
sugar monoculture results), social (e.g.,
medical and dental care), cultural (e.g.,
loss of cultural diversity and habits) and
Community Agriculture Fair
The fair consists of a space for distributing organic foods produced and harvested by organized residents within their neighborhood.
This possibility of abundance and beauty is due
to the bill passed by the city that contemplates
the donation of land for food production, provided there is an organized management group
in place.
The fair takes place once a week in the neighborhoods, and in addition to supplying fresh
and healthy food, it fosters integration and exchange of skills that feed community life.
Daniela di Grazia, Lucilaine Oliveira
Campos and Inês Soares Campos,
Campinas, Brazil, 2010.
even economic (e.g., productivity loss
because of poor health) costs were
incorporated.
Shifting from eating to nourishing
was more important than expected,
since it developed skills fundamental for
the implementation of sustainability as
a system: Listening and learning about
one’s nature and needs, developing discipline and self-regulation by making
wise choices; being aware of future consequences of present actions.
There was a dramatic increase of,
more or less radical, vegetarians, and all
sorts of vegan diets that took into account the physical and cultural peculiarities of individuals and communities.
Gastronomy has grown to be a refined way to enjoy and learn about
food, especially since “quantity” has
103
Andre, FILEl,
BigVegan Network.
Reunites the BigVegan supermarkets, commonly known as Super Veganão, and the Vegano Soni Restaurants
that feature solar heating, vegan bio-green garden, cistern, rain water collection, orchard, library, bicycle yard,
fantastic cuisine, live music on moonlit nights.
Lolita Sala and Rodrigo, Brazil, 2010.
104
been replaced by originality, diversity,
and quality. Eco-Chefs proliferated to
become a rage and after them came the
development of hundreds of food-related businesses niches.
All this, of course, led to new ways
of producing and marketing: fair trade,
family farming, both sustainable and
organic. Following the overall change
of pattern (mass production/centralized
to niche /decentralized production),
small farmers organized in networks
have been gradually gaining scale and
replacing monocultures and the agricultural industries of the past, proving that
it is possible to produce, distribute, and
supply all demands using other models.
Solidarity Productive Clusters
Three organic farmers: an Asian, an African, and
a Brazilian rural dweller met yesterday, holographically, to chat about trading original seeds
produced in their communities, to strengthen
their local gene bank collections to guarantee
the preservation of biodiversity. Authors: Claudio
and Sergio M. Prospero Barbosa
For a future where people do not need to sacrifice lives to feed themselves, let us recognize the
animals as siblings and educate children for
non-violence, instead of fighting evil with evil.
Claudio Próspero and Sergio M. Barbosa,
São Paulo, Brazil, 2009.
Seed Head: Creating a future, living in the present.
Crie Futuros Comics Contest. Sylvio Ayla, Brasil, 2011.
Multi, Trans, Poly Health
This is the “century of care” also characterized by being “multi” and “trans”
– and with Health it could not be any
different. In recent decades we managed to retrieve quite a bit of the time,
knowledge, and lives lost by denial a
nd/
or opposition between different types
of medicine. Now, there is close cooperation between them, each contributing an aspect. Allopathy, with its
successful repairing and sewing; acupuncture, with the ancient knowledge
about the relationship among organs;
herbal medicines, for its accessibility
and affordability, etc. They are widely
used today, ever since the blending of
millennia of traditional knowledge
with the scope of modern science. Medical decisions are taken by a multidisciplinary group of caregivers / physicians,
who can no longer restrict themselves
to a single specialty.
One of the major changes observed was in the pharmaceutical industry. The peak of its unregulated
growth was reached in the mid-20´s,
when it was found that drugs such as
antidepressants, sedatives, mood and
hunger regulators, and stimulants
were loosely prescribed, in any context and sold in such quantities that
action to remedy the situation had to
be taken. In an effort to answer the
basic question “But, after all? Why
don’t we change the world?“ We
found replies such as “Because
creativityand nonconformity, mainly
in children, are treated as diseases”;
“Because we anesthetize or hide our
dissatisfaction and desire for change
with the easiest available subterfuge.”
Much has been written about this in
order to better understand mass phenomena such as consumption, sports,
celebrity worshiping, and other chronophagic activities.
Today, the vision of life is less
mechanicist and deterministic than in
the previous century, and therefore
healing processes are multidimensional,
less related to chemistry and more
related to physics. Vibratory patterns
obtained by high-tech technologies are
105
Fun Ideas for Hospitals
Bed Fashion: workshop on fun pajamas and healthy fashion.
Garden of delights: a mixture of oriental with Brazilian gardens, herbs, spices, fragrances, varied stones, a
garden with sand and rakes to draw.
Workshops memories: for visitors and companions.
Toy Workshop: toys are donated to the pediatric section.
Closed Circuit TV: internal programming with the support of Journalism Schools. Scripts are collective creations of patients and technical staff.
Life Story: rotation of patients in the rooms to exchange experiences. Patients vote on life stories to become
scripts for the closed circuit TV.
Hospital Culture: weekly programming for social interaction areas featuring story tellers, magicians, music,
lectures on nutrition, health, art, culture, history.
Game library: skill games, puzzles, both classic and modern.
Library: literature, arts, sciences and “books for the eyes.”
CD library: stories, jokes, music ...
Traveling Studio: Mobile furniture to circulate around the rooms with art materials: watercolor, chalk, crayon,
paper, tape, cutting and collage materials, clay, drawing boards, etc. Mirrors for self portraits, dress up costumes and other paraphernalia.
Exhibition Panel: to show the work by patients and companions.
Massage: a lot!
Adriana Klicys, specialist in games + science + art1, São Paulo, Brazil, 2010.
1 http://www.caleido.com.br/adriana-klisys.html
used just as much as Quantum Tuning
Processes that recognize and tune the
pitches of any person, including those
achieved through meditation, sound,
color, movement.
The advancement of mankind,
which went from the “survive” stage to
the “live” stage, brought about major
changes: organizations tied to War became organizations dedicated to Peace,
106
and medicine a lot more devoted to
learning about and promoting health
instead of dealing with disease.
In the post-Great Bubble burst, in
which people, institutions, and enterprises agreed that sustainability would
be the guiding principle of all activities,
it became evident that it was no longer
possible to waste resources, time, and
enthusiasm with diseases that could be
avoided. More than ever, life was too
good to be lost, and there was a great
increase in the number of Health Care
groups comprised by volunteers and
professionals using socio-cultural technologies13 . Thus, networking and socializing networks were established, preventing insecurity, poor nutrition, lack
of hygiene, information, peer-pressure
and bad company from becoming
causes of disease.
It is was interesting to see that, between the 20th and 21st centuries, medicine experienced an evolution similar to
the leap from 19th century photography
to the 20th century cinema. Before, tests
and caregivers/physicians relied on data
obtained mainly at the time of interaction with the patient, i.e. “a picture” of
that moment. Then, access to data
about a variety of human functions,
combined with everyday life, observed
through layer overlapping systems
(such as those used in graphic design
software) allowed diagnoses that were
more like a “moving picture”, making
it possible to follow progress over time.
To perceive illness and health as historical processes changed significant concepts, for example, concepts related to
aging and to what was “natural.” For a
person in the Middle Ages, it was “natural” to die at 30, to lose teeth, and
have skin disorders – a scenario that
changed with better hygiene. Today,
we realize that aging and illness are
not synonymous and that disease is
more a consequence of poor living than
of long living.
HEALTH IN 2042, FROM
THE OUTLOOK OF
"NONSENSOLOGY"
Wellington Nogueira, creator of the Doutores da Alegria1 and
business consultant. São Paulo, Brazil. 2012.
Nowadays, we “nonsensologuers”1 are confused:
WHERE DOES THE HOSPITAL BEGIN? AND WHERE
DOES IT END? This confusion takes place because we
see a number of diseases being cultivated in our relations with life. Therefore, what reaches the hospital
had started much earlier, e.g. in the hustle of big
cities, in many homes and in the workplace (which is
where the adult is interned, as was so well diagnosed by the renowned “nonsensologue” our distinguished colleague, Dr. Ferrara). Just one visit to the
emergency rooms of public and private hospitals is
enough to give an X-ray of the social problems we
face in the day to day and that are unloaded there.
At the same time, there was never so much talk
about sustainability as now. Where does this socalled sustainability begin and end? Definitely, it begins with the quality of our relations with life. Each
1
13
An example is the Pastoral da Criança, https://www.
pastoraldacrianca.org.br/
Professional clowns cast members of the “Doctors of
Joy”, who are trained to perform with excellence in
hospitals, in portuguese: “besteirologistas”.
of us is the starting point. I look, I listen, I know myself, I accept myself and so I’m
able to look, listen, understand and welcome the other. If the Earth is threatened
today, it is because we do to it what we do to ourselves – we treat it badly! We
reproduce in the outside world what we cultivate within ourselves! So let’s go
back to what master Gandhi said: “Be the change you want to see in the world”
and read once more the beginning of the Earth Charter, where it is clearly stated
that we are interdependent beings. Okay, from these interconnected points we
can begin to think about desirable futures in the area of healthcare.
When we develop our awareness, we enjoy healthy living, eating well what we
plant in our collective gardens, which, in turn, also serve as classrooms for children and young people.Yes, food awareness is now a school subject, along with
healthy and tasty cuisine – in an activity that also involves the families! Without
wasted food, all live well fed. Because of this trend, the agrotoxic industry reinvented itself and became a disseminator of organic planting techniques, since
the huge plantations lost their centrality after people took for themselves the
responsibility for growing food.
This entire revolution in eating habits also made room for collective entertainment: a lot of people have fun together and this makes life much better. Families that have fun together generate more lasting friendships and care. In a
neighborhood, everybody knows one another and takes care of each other,
therefore, urban violence dropped incredibly. People tear down their high walls
and electric fences because they are no longer needed. A city that takes possession of its streets and public spaces for leisure, art and culture reveals itself.
This generates a healthier, happier population, aware that everyone is building
collective health, day to day. In schools, the subjects are all about how we can
be better and more harmonious We are aware of the legacy that we leave at
every breath we take. Moreover, use of breathing techniques is one of the first
things one learns in school!
107
We also saw a devastating impact on the relations of people with work! Yes,
because at this stage of the game, no one is working to survive or to get rich, but
pursuing his aim in life by means of work, which rescues crafts considered extinct such as itinerant artists who make going into the street an experience of
beauty and gracefulness. Musicians, poets, sculptors, painters, singers, clowns,
actors, all of these artists are part of everyday life, stimulating conversations, debates, discussions and thoughts. Since we choose to work to make the world
better, working is a pleasure and an honor, and we are all actors in that same
great spectacle we create every day, by means of our conviviality.
In such a world, hospitals have become centers of cultivating health, retrieving
from ancient Greece the knowledge of Aesculapius, who used the arts to heal
people. Physicians and health professionals began to receive artistic training so
that caring could become an art. Listening and Looking are first order disciplines!
This brought about a general reformulation of the concept of hospitals and hospitalization. After all, aware of their purpose in life, physicians nurses and other
health professionals understand that the encounter with each patient is an opportunity to, together, become better human beings. Technology makes the treatments rapid and far less invasive, leaving time to build healthy relations in harmony with the movement of life.
In 2042, we have learned to celebrate every day the meeting with our fellowman, because we know that no two human beings are alike and that we are the
manifestation of a miracle that so far science has not fully unveiled. Celebration
became a lifestyle. We motivate ourselves for something that is very strong: the
will to do better for the other. This is health in practice.
108
Caring a lot
Silvina Martinez, permaculture architect whose work brings together permaculture and
As such my parents were given a brief summary of my “Sensitivity
Coordinates“: a list of my Primary Talents and that of Potential Risks (enemies
of my psychophysical health).
creative economy1. Buenos Aires, Argentina, 2012.
In the future I imagine that the magic word will be “Caring.” It’s a kind future, caring for each person and creates conditions enabling them to develop
their best. Where babies arrive with a handbook (a fantasy shared by many
parents!). And where success is measured in levels of satisfaction. A world
where I would feel more at ease, and I will describe below:
(...) I belong to the first generation born in the program Great Care. It took 25
years to put it into practice, but not to develop its technology: the real revolution consisted in overthrowing the myth that it was not possible to attend each
individual in its particularity.
Even though they followed the entire process together, my mother will never
forget the expression of astonishment and dismay of my father when the Reception Team handed them my Vital Document.
The Document
When I came to this – new – world, the team checked in silence, my vital functions on the screen, at some distance, and watching to see if any of us three
required some assistance. Then the team approached to share the results disclosed by the Sensitivity Analysis System.
My parents remember with some shame that in addition to making an effort to
recognize themselves in my talents, they had no idea of what to do with the
information received, since it does not say she will be a “physician” or “florist”.
The list of skills was as extensive as inaccurate and, furthermore, the professions and crafts were already quite different from those known in their... The
second part was more enlightening, “Hypersensitivity to disorder” “Difficulty to
digesting yellow colored foods... “.
The school
The education system was reformed concurrently with all this new available information. Also, if someone asks for it or needs it, it can take a life time. In the
early years there is not much mobility: each child has classes according to the
skills shown in their document.
So, my willingness to abstract thought has shaped my relationship with all Sciences and at the end of my basic schooling I had acquired knowledge that the
previous generation could only have at the university.
My artistic skill, however was quite low, therefore I had classes on “Perception and Aesthetic Pleasure” in which I developed enough sensitivity to enjoy
all the forms of art, and was able to produce simple works with rather satisfactory results.
Until the middle of high school most of us, influenced by new friends or because of personal inquietude, exercise their curiosity in areas that hitherto had
1
www.culturafi.com.ar
109
not been of interest. I started to participate in the school band as a drummer,
since I had developed a certain rhythmic quality ... That’s when I fell in love with
a musician. Perhaps due to the relation between Arithmetic and Harmony...
common elements, the majority became a planetary objective and
were fought against until their disappearance (abnormal pollution, UV
radiation, etc.).
Subjects such as “Ethics” and “Creativity” are taught in all disciplines. The more
heterogeneous and colorful classes are Humanities, in which all converge: the
New Planetary Agreement (the document that underlies the entire program) it
places the Human Being as primary responsible for all care.
It was most interesting to show that, with some nine billion people registered in
absolutely all of them, talents and potential weaknesses are found at birth.
When their similarities are checked in “basic“ conditions, the need to equalize
development opportunities throughout the world is clear. And the fantasy (semi
assumed) of the existence of “super men” faded, imparting new self-esteem in
the population.
Other classes were a bit anarchic, “Social Sciences” and “Habitat”, which were
constantly reformulated, and “Intergenerational Relations” – because even
then it was considered an affair of state.
“Cultures” is given each month by people who are a reference in their communities, who report their identity traits by means of oral tradition storytelling. The
subject is a celebration, where we learn to dance their rhythms and of course,
the secrets of their cuisine.
The Census
After 20 years of the program were completed the First Global Census of the
New Era was organized. New Vital Documents of the entire population were
issued with the following results:
•
The list of Talents increased in relation to the first measurement, confirming the hypothesis that to know the skills “of origin” improves the ability,
even in not particularly gifted areas, and prevents many frustrations.
•
Regarding Potential Risks, decrease of zones of extreme sensitivity was
also noteworthy, thanks to prevention and for dealing with the most
But the revolution has only just begun:
Nobody can foresee what will happen when the levels of dissatisfaction drastically drop. Or when the word “useless” will be finally deleted from the vocabulary when we refer to a fellowman.
There was a decrease in the levels of disease and violence, so budgets for
Health and Security have already decreased.
We no longer hear the nostalgic “... in my time, young people were...”: the older feel that this is also their time and are proud of leading at the moment when
the planet changed Power for Care.
But one thing has not changed at all: in consultations with the psychoanalyst,
people still talk about their mothers!
Cheers!
110
A Neat World / They would launch the Dial-a-Psychoanalyst. / A software that would allow to download musicians over the Internet. / Street names would be more amusing.
Adão Itusgarrai, 2009.
TAGS: learning-cycles - competences - knowledge convergence - creativity - diversity - education emotion - school - expression - stages of life - web
physiology - intuition - language - thinking - drive
- feeling - synthesis - technology ‒ qualitative
6
LEARN, CREATE,
COMMUNICATE
“The visions we offer our children shape the future. It matters what those
visions are. Often they become self-fulfilling prophecies. Dreams are maps.”
Carl Sagan
112
desirable new world
Where are we?
Another Reading of
the Passing of Time
Until recently, a visitor who came from
the distant past would find it difficult to
recognize our buildings and professions.
But the school would be recognized immediately. For far too long they have
remained the place where we were confined and isolated – as if being a child
were a disease, a disease of incompleteness, which is cured when we become
adults. What is more, a recurrent evil
that affected us when we started to be
affected by another thing that was also
viewed as a disease: aging.
The change began with the very
notion of the passing of time and the
words that define it like the term “infancy” (in-phonos, without voice)
phased out, as well as “Adolescence”
(adolescere, double meaning in Latin:
to grow and to get sick). We know that
there are three “adolescences”, one for
each passage in life, which today are
called First, Second, and Third Transition (the fourth is the definitive one...).
The stage once known as Childhood today is Potentia, that of all
potentials. It is when all kinds of indepth, qualified, consistent information is received – after all, this is where
it all begins. The opposite of what was
believed for some time, since there
Neither table, nor chair
In this new way of learning, human beings will be taught to be and not to do.
Instead of being a Teacher, he will play the role of Connector to transmit knowledge through affinities.
Children take to the streets and go everywhere to learn by practice about the real issues. The parents are
with them and together they learn and participate in this process, expanding their horizons.
The rooms are empty, free of tables and chairs, and children and young people can decide how they want the
walls, the room, patio, etc. to be, creating a personalized space with their digital imprints.
Alessandra Mara Vidotti, André Stangl, Dudão Melo. São Paulo, 2008.
used to be this idea that for the little
ones (... suffering from incompleteness) everything could be silly, trivial,
and of poor quality. Quality and diversity are guaranteed, as stated in the
African proverb “It takes a whole village to educate a child” and indeed,
they are cared for by all.
After the First Transition (quite interestingly, it can last from 13 to 31)
comes the Frutificare stage, the raising
children and consolidating work
phase. It is no longer so difficult, because, fortunately, the idea that autonomy is synonymous to isolation was
abandoned and, today, domestic and
everyday life are shared. Inspired by
mutual-aid cultures, mainly those from
the East, family and friends collaborate with start-off endeavors and
households (in their multiple formats)
undertaken by young fruitifiers.
The Second Transition, around the
fifties, has proven to play a key role in
the shift toward sustainability. Since
increased life expectancy is no longer
the time to stop, but to start another
life, since children are educated and
L EARN , CRE AT E , CO M M U N I CAT E
careers consolidated (or not...). The
evolution of the Male Affection Movement came together with a better understanding of this phase, facilitated
by the until then almost nonexistent
study of andropause. As they better
understood their hormonal fluctuations (something women do all their
lives), men became less vulnerable and
more at ease.
Maturity is now called Selectia, selective phase, search for depth. The
previous phase is one of quantity and
of “conquering your place”; this one is
of quality, which becomes possible
through “making the best of time” –
one that allows for bonding, depth, refinement. It is an age that adds together
vigor and experience. This is one of the
reasons why there is no “retirement” –
financially unsustainability because of
disease and depression, and mainly, because work is no longer seen as pain to
be endured. We do what we like and
therefore do a good job of it. And work
is good for us.
In the Third Transition, we are welcomed by the community, which takes
Peru, 2009
care of us, seeking the wisdom and experience we have accumulated. This
phase is called Distributie, because it is a
time to distribute. As today’s intergenerational exchanges are a priority it is
the time when the wisdom of the elderly nurtures and guides children. The
young keep the elderly updated while
learning their craft. When it was still believed that aging brought inevitable deterioration, the elderly withdrew. But
when we realized that this was a time to
distribute and disseminate all that was
harvested throughout life, the dynamics
reversed and required steady training.
The discipline on how to age gracefully
Chain of solutions
Creation of social software that enables
contact between those who have problems /
questions and those who are able to provide
solutions and answers.
The implementation and acceptance of the
suggestions offered involves starting a debt: to
provide answers and suggestions to other
problems and questions.
The answers and suggestions should follow the
criteria of collective sustainability.
The network has a working group to create
mechanisms and ways to widen the reach of the
proposed solutions.
Lilian Ana Faversan and Sergio Teixeira, São
Paulo, 2010
113
114
desirable new world
starts early on to ensure quality of life
from fifty to a hundred. Discipline in
eating, regularity of movement, mental
challenge, enjoyment of beauty, search
for the new, entertaining positive
thoughts, cultivating relationships.
In the past, people got married at
fifteen and died at forty – we were
forced to mature quickly. The Taoist and
other ancient traditions say that the
phases of life are measured in cycles of 7
x 4 years. Childhood / Potentia, up to 28;
Youth / Frutificare, up to 56; Maturity /
Selectia, until 84; and Old Age / Distributie, up to 112. We’re almost there.
When the perception of the passage of time changes, the notion of
“learning and teaching” also changes.
Each Transition requires adequate
knowledge and creativity. We create,
learn, and teach all the time. This is one
of the reasons why everything had to
be reworked.
Fernanda, File São Paulo, 2010.
Technology: Means and not End
At first we might think that technological advances were the major spur for
change in learning and creativity, but by
now no one believes that inventions
and products are the solution for everything. Today we emphasize processes, changing mentalities and habits.
However, the role of digital technologies is undeniable, especially after they
became sensory.
Interestingly, computers and digital systems originally came from the
former U.S.A and so, when they were
created they retained some of their
cultural traits: individual (personal
computers...), rational, made to exchange information, predominantly
for texting and for audio visual and
competitive games. That changed, as
technologies were developed by less
FIL -Free Interactive Learning
Through the World Office for Education, an innovative form of education, was approved and launched in the
Chamber of Governments. The new model, called “Fil” Free Interactive Learning allows to revolutionize the
act of educating.
– How does it work?
* The school, as such, does not cease to exist, but the educational activities no longer centered there.
* The new model does not depend on the teacher, but involves all social environments, insofar as they are
adapted to the new technologies.
* Standards and rules remain, with only minor changes geared to learning in a desirable instead of a mandatory way, where time and space do not set the boundaries for new knowledge.
– How will students want the school to be?
* With incentive programs and cultural approaches based on “young” contents, something that attracts just
like a dance party does.
* Scholarship programs, even in the public school system. It is not payment, but a student allowance. The
scholarships are limited to those who actually want the school: those who attend classes receive them, those
who skip them, don’t.
– The physical spaces will be: the school headquarters, and school fragments in every social environment.
– The virtual mode will employ all forms of communication with student access via mobile phones, television,
and all communication means.
Jacyara C. R.Mardgan, Dayana of O.Rosa, Wyuder da Silva Rodrigues, Victoria, 2010
rational and more intuitive and sensorial nations. Today, our computers also
transmit emotions and feelings, smells,
sounds, movements, tactile experiences – just take a look at the amount of
smell, sound, kinetic, and other “emoticons” we have. So much so, that they
have turned into another language.
Someone asks: “Did you manage to
prepare material for your thesis?” And
you reply: spiral, spiral, soap bubbles,
purple with fuchsia, rock and roll,
slides. Not the most concentrated
phase...
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BB Incoming sensory data are “translated”
into experience by a triple combination:
3D Enclosure Screens, 3D Printers / 5S
(three dimensions and five senses),
and the 5S (five senses) Chairs. The 3D
+ sound sea image on the screen is accompanied by its smell, emitted by the printer,
and the swing + spray droplets coming
from the chair. All optional, of course, and
with a group option as well... They are
simplified versions of virtual reality, which
incidentally has advanced and has spread,
ever since the massive adhesion to opensource and free software. This adhesion
took place shortly after chaos was triggered, when each culture decided to
charge copyrights for their inventions.
Supposedly, anyone using the alphabet,
numbers, mathematical solutions, paper,
compass, gunpowder, toilet, airplanes,
pasta, ice cream, etc.., etc.. should pay the
countries that invented them. There was a
general and global paralyzation, since
Knowledge Blackout is even less manageable that an energy blackout.
Nowadays, Web Physiology is already better known, with its pulsation
that alternates expansion and diversifi-
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desirable new world
cation phases with concentration phases – once again, the same concentrate/
mono vs. decentralized/pluri pattern
we’ve seen so many times.
Listed below are some of these
pulsations.
(I apologize to the experts for this
daring and improbable exercise; indeed,
I wish to apologize to all the experts for
all the daring and improbable exercises
that make up this book...).
BB expansion, when it started, scattered
among universities and technical centers;
contraction with the first mega sites and
providers;
BB expansion with Web 2.0 and its diversity
of wikis and blogs and intense collaborative
knowledge production; contraction with
the social networks that used up all the cognitive surplus of people in ephemeral posts;
BB expansion in the late ‘10s, when 3.0
blogs and wikis return, georeferenced
this time around. People stop posting
information (since it was lost...) in social networks that now have only a relational function; concentration when few digital platforms allow qualitative rather than
quantitative contact with the web.
BB Expansion in the early ‘20s, when the
web was no longer a sea of indiscriminate
data where one navigated without a map.
All the new interfaces were already using
data visualization systems and, when we
started to deal with qualitative data, it was
possible to gain depth. With it we create
something like a “relief, or topography of
the web.” Where there is relief and depth,
one can discern the relevance – that had
been lost in the early ‘10s. Contraction
when only a few, knowledgeable about the
morphology of the Web, are capable of
studying its physiology.
Conversely, the recent history is
better known: in-depth of the data
reading, with relief provided by overlapping layers, starting with georeferencing real-time layers. This was crucial
to enabling the 4DxT Economics and
Management referred to in earlier
chapters, in addition to multidimensional education, communication, and creativity that are the subject of this
chapter.
Crie Futuros Comics Competition. Javier Milles Sierra,
Uruguay, 2011
Now I am a teacher
This morning, a Chip that can automatically
teach how to fly helicopters, drive motorcycles,
cars, and even do math was invented.
- And what about Schools?
- And since when do Chips teach human
relationships?
The schools were replaced by relationship city
squares that allow people to talk about their
own lives, what they want for their future, what
they think of themselves, what they think of
everything.
- And so, did things improve?!
Only the future will tell.
Leonardo Almenara, Thiago de Oliveira, Vitória,
2010.
Convergence: art + science
+ economics + society
+ technology + environment
We are talking here about learning, creating, and communicating in all spheres
of life, all ages, venues, and times. When
these activities became ongoing, daily,
and integrated, new lexicons (words al-
ways fail to express the new...) were required. The multiplicity of forms and the
progressive acquisition of multidimensionality may be noticed in the evolution
of acronyms.
From Information Technology (IT)
to ITCs (+ communication); then to Science, Technology, and Society (STS) to
which were added the Arts (ASTS) and
today we finally have ASESTE: Art, Science, Economy, Society, Technology,
and Environment. Phew! It is noteworthy that these words encompass the
four dimensions. The name is so long
that it already became a verb and adjective: “This project does not contemplate the D/Environmental; we must
“asestetize it“(make it four-dimensional). Or “Wow, this project is great, very
“asesteing” (meaning, covering all
4DxT dimensions).
Today, then, the processes of learning, research, creativity, and communication are integrated. They are ASESTE.
Since this is still a not widely known lexicon, we will at times use most current
terms such as Educreative, owing to its
elegant simplicity.
117
Tools for Each Layer
of the Educreative Process
How to work the Educreative under
the current perspective of emphasis on
the organic and the biomimetic? Here
we can avail ourselves of the same
scheme that introduced the previous
chapter and follow the order that organizes our nature and the surrounding
Nature.
Layer One :
Drive – Transformation
Today’s science shows that what characterizes the Human Being is his symbolic
representation ability and the learning,
communication, and creation capabilities that stem from it. The essence of our
nature is to create, and therein lies the
probable reason why all traditions refer
to human beings as “created in the image and likeness of the divinity.” The
movement toward a sustainable life revealed that our health as individuals and
as a society is related to the practice of
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desirable new world
Individual of the Future
Thanks to the Internet, experiments have picked
up momentum, and this is why “Education” and
“Work” institutions are outdated. Soon, schools
and enterprises will have to change, especially
in the way they operate.
From then on, to work in groups, people will
have to deepen and develop the following skills
and values:
- Culture of tolerance,
- Citizenship relation, practical, clever and useful;
- Opportunities to learn and overcome
prejudices;
- Inclusive work logic, a kind of knowledge does
not preclude others; they add up;
- Knowledge constantly available online.
Maria do Carmo, Aracy Machado, Fabrício Jabar,
Natascha Penna, José Sávio, Alindo de Oliveira,
Miriam Hunnicutt, Ronaldo Gonçalves Alves,
Jaci Lopes da Cruz, Jaron Rowan, Alexandra
Araujo. São Paulo, 2008.
Eyeglasses with TV, agenda, Internet. It can
be activated by remote control or voice
command. This future was created in 2010. In
2012 Google launched a prototype. FILE, Rio
de Janeiro, 2012.
For Play School
Adults today are very tough, that is, they don’t
have much fun; they take life too seriously.
Moreover, children are very technological, with
little interaction with others. That‘s why the For
Play School was created, where adults can learn
with the children, the technological games and
languages they don´t know, while the adults
teach the children how to be more spontaneous
and free and “analogical” street games. Truly
different exchange!
Anna, Elena and Paloma, São Paulo, 2010
creativity, the ongoing transformation
that is the foremost characteristic of Life
and Nature – and, therefore, ours.
But we live in a continuous impasse: our Culture, and therefore our
education, viewed transformation, continued movement, as something threatening and difficult to handle. We would
change, if it were easy. It is not. Changing habits is much harder than changing
one’s mind. Breaking the patterns of everyday life is difficult, since it sustains us
as well as hinders us. This duality is
even apparent in our body: the leg that
supports us is in the present while the
leg that strides forward is looking for
the future. The outcome is instability –
and walking.
Reducing resistance to change and
expanding the ability to transform
were possible thanks to memory, using
even remembrances from the Future!
Three major mechanisms were used:
BB Simulator of Consequences: Helps
us Make Conscious and Consequent
Choices. It is fed with data regarding the
choice in question and then it displays the
consequences. Example: you double parked
for just a minute – how big was the traffic
jam you caused behind you? How much (in
4DxT currencies) does that traffic jam cost?
Today the Simulator is fed by high school
students, since everyone has to take the
“Choices” and “Consequences” subjects.
The program is also available for mobile
devices, provided with a barcode reader.
BB Memorial of Current Barbarities:
Look at the Present with Tomorrow’s
Eyes. When we look at the past, we clearly
see the barbarities perpetrated. And what
about the ones being perpetrated today?
119
Layers of our constitution related to basic psychological functions and stages of transformation, learning, and creativity.
Which commonplace attitudes are actually
foolish; squander our 4DxT assets; consume enthusiasm and joy; break up ties of
trust, in short, are unsustainable? Excellent
training to stop our bad habit of accepting
the unacceptable1. It became a daily practice, until barbarities became more and
more scarce.
1
At the time of writing I received a gem: I had to sign
a Disclaimer of non Unfitness
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desirable new world
Memorial of the Future Simulations for Decision Making
It is an Intangible Exhibition, in which any person that has any future issues to solve can
bring his/her box of problems and solutions
containing photos, objects, etc. creating a future simulations memorial. It can be done in
vacant public or private spaces, where images,
sounds, costumes, and others, are also available
for people to build their installations. The entire
simulation will be registered, and a Memorial of
the Future site will be created, where the most
creative and different solutions to common
problems will be featured.
Robinson Borba, Araci, Claudia Cezar, Jaques
Faing, São Paulo, 2008.
Historian of the future
He has a helmet (solar powered), which allows
him to return to the past and warn people about
the conflicts, disagreements, and past wars to
avoid their repetition in the present.
Carlos Rossetto and Carlos Bonbonatti, Brazil,
2009
BB Preventive Obituaries2: What’s Your
Legacy? Even more effective than 4DxT
Footprints, it is something like a newspaper
notice describing what hallmarks in your
life will remain. Based on a true anecdote
about Alfred Nobel: a newspaper erroneously reported his death, describing him as
“the merchant of death” for having made
his fortune manufacturing explosives. This
is where his decision to award those who
leave legacies for the future came from.
Since nobody wanted to be deserving of a
preventive obituary, there was a time when
they generated some paranoia. Nevertheless, they were effective.
Besides memory, the desire to
ASESTE and the Educreative drive come
from pleasure. Whatever is proposed
must be diverse and amusing. Diverse,
since this is the hallmark of contemporary life, since “from differences comes
evolution”. This famous Darwin quotation today also applies to personal, social, and international relations. Differences (as well as change) are no longer
perceived as a problem or threat. Com-
binations of differences are the basis of
life and of all that – like life itself – is
dynamic, creative, pulsating, and
healthy. Diverse, because we know that
diversity is the key to creativity and harmonious coexistence among people.
For example, the time of education like
an assembly line, going over the same
contents at the same time, in the same
place for people of the same age and
profile is long gone3.
The ASETE Multi Inter Spaces are
currently intergenerational and within
them “hardware” and “software” are
mobile and adaptable. Walls and furniture are modular, very colorful, and get
new configurations for each type of activity. Contents vary according to context and participants´ choice.
Amusing, because we have left behind the idea that seriousness is synonymous to tediousness. When, on the
contrary, it is obvious that the more
pleasurable and amusing, the greater
will be commitment and participation.
3In www.escoladaponte.com.pt discover an
2
The good Idea comes from Gilberto Dimenstein
education proposal that meets diversity.
Knowledge is the result of aesthetic
mobilization – in the original meaning
of the word, that is, relying upon feelings and affection4. Fruition precedes
analysis, which does not often occur.
We learned to analyze works of art
even before we developed the pleasure
of enjoying them….
The desire to understand - know has to be stimulated by the feelings
and sensations - taste. The connection
between to know and to taste is revealed, for instance, by the fact that
they were both experimented and disseminated by means of the tongue - an
organ, or language. Educreativity
comes from the inclusion of knowledge
and taste, information and experiencing. When learning was separated from
taste, the results were terrible: after
years in schools, young people still
came out as functional illiterates5. To
4
See research by Monique Deheinzelin on the subject
“Conhecimento de Si, Conhecimento do Mundo”, Editora
Hedra, 2012.
5
Find at www.saresp.fde.sp.gov.br/2011 the results of
the systematic evaluation done annually by the state
government.
121
At school, a mix of big and little ones learn together. The big ones help the little ones. Francesc, Marina, Rosó, and Victor.
Barcelona, 2009.
learn language usage by memorizing
what an “adjective subordinate noun
phrase” was, was not exactly efficient.
However, when motivated to use language to create newspapers or write
scripts, they really managed to appropriate language use.
In Educreativity, taste and pleasure
are priorities, and so is purpose: the
clearer the function of that activity, the
better its utilization. To enjoy a work
of art to expand points of view, to polish sensitivity or to manage languages.
Understanding geometry to develop
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desirable new world
Develop capabilities to be happy
Education in Treatment
Education is undergoing treatment, in a few
months it will leave the ICU, fully, totally
revamped.
In the “New School” public and private education will be unified. Classes take place in the
yards, rather than in classrooms. Teachers will be
the managers of knowledge, creating subjects
called “Stimuli”, where students will be encouraged to listen, cook, etc., before choosing.
The best qualified teacher will be the one who
watches ten movies, and not the one with more
academic titles. Field trips every week!
Each month a culture coach will be invited to
talk and play with students.
Body care will be part of daily life, particularly
the practice of Yoga, which encourages students
to become better acquainted with themselves.
The eighth day of the week will be invented! A
special day for experiments, experiencing, and
incentive to philosophy.
Adriana Klysis, Camila Margusi, Vitor Haggar,
Christina, and Reinaldo Pamponet, Brazil 2009.
abstract thinking – crucial at a time
when we “read” the various aspects of
life through volumes arranged in overlapping layers.
Adding taste and knowledge, diverse and amusing is impossible without
a combination of education and culture,
hence the origin, two decades ago, of
the word Educreativity. The sum of combined ASESTE tools – art, science, technology, and play – makes the process
even more exciting and allows playfulness to continue to be part of all the
stages of our lives. Just go to any Adult
Play Ground, Party Playeries, or just attend the Playful Relational Spaces that
exist in every type of institution or enterprise. The Meeting Rooms with
Trampolines and Blindfolded Eyes Coffee Shops have collaborated to develop
new psycho-motor abilities.
What humanity wants (and probably other species do too if one could only understand them...)
is happiness. So the main function of schools is
to develop capabilities to be happy. For example,
with intense training in humor, subjects like Joke
Telling I, about crazy people, Joke Telling II, about
parrots, and Introduction to Clown Studies and
Advanced Clown Studies.
Anonymous, Brazil, 2010.
Layer TWO : Sensation –
What is Sensed, Makes Sense
In recent years, we have become alert
to all kinds of waste and many things
could be much simpler if we did not
waste the elucidative meaning of common everyday phrases. Just by paying
attention to to the word “lovable”, we
immediately grasp that it means easier
to be loved. Likewise, for the longest
time we wasted one of the key expressions for the cultural change toward
sustainability: “That makes no sense.”
The rooms will be very large, with different environments
and even sofas (places to rest), just like in a home. Ada
and Monique, Barcelona, 2009
Indeed. How many things did not make
sense because they were definitely
senseless? Or because at the time, the
senses were not being used? Too many
things did without the use of the five
senses, at the beginning of the 21st century and perhaps that is why so many
people found life senseless. While at
the same time, they got a good dose of
optimism simply by drinking hot choco-
late, dancing to nice music, laughing at
a joke. Only what is sensed makes
sense.
For too long we dedicated ourselves to the rational (forgetting that
the way to the head is through the
heart...) and forsake the body and its
sensations. As if it were a lesser thing
(oh! this Judeo-Christian heritage...)
and not something of unrivaled sophistication and perfection6. If we don´t
feel, we are unable to give meaning to
experience, therefore, information is
sterile. And where might this take
place? It is in the body, this fabulous
wonder that for centuries has been
considered the villain of the story...
Things began to “make sense”
when the senses were better used. It is
only through them that we could sense
ourselves and the world, and the sixth
sense only developed from the other
five. It is in the body that this happened,
and that is why the body was crucial for
6
A human being can perceive the smell of one
trillionth of a gram of musk! A taster of Port wine
identified 500 different samples without a single mistake.
(Silva Mello, “Alimentação, Instinto e Cultura”)
The Visionary Book. When it is opened it provides a
tridimensional, sensorial, and interactive view
Rafael Reyes and Andrés Moreno, Rep’
123
124
desirable new world
Store smells
• My desirable future is to safeguard precious
smells
• smell of mother’s food
• perfume reminiscent of childhood
• smell after rain
• smell of a newborn child
• smell of our love that only we know...
Shirley Shilikix, New York, 2012.
the leap towards sustainability. The
body is our first nature, our greatest asset, our starting point (and perhaps endpoint...). The change had to take place
from the inside out.
The lifestyle at the beginning of
the century led to all kinds of de-sensitization and anesthesia and, indeed, we
only broke with the past when, at the
end of the ‘10s, we became aware of
how deeply anesthetized we were. The
records of this time are highly entertaining: there was a return to all kinds
of sensitizing exercises, like those of the
‘60s and ‘70s of the past century. Groups
of blindfolded people sniffing their
“A sensed world, changes senses”. Grafitti, Morro do
Querosene. São Paulo, Brazil, 2012.
way along a path were commonly seen
in the parks, holding on to their neighbor, or hugging trees. Until Sensory
Playgrounds were created, where senior citizens were those who had most
fun... Awareness and Expression Of
Line, were practiced in all enterprises
and education institutions.
This was when the Experiences
Stores emerged, where instead of having (to consume) we practiced experiencing (to enjoy) all kinds of scents, textures, and kinetic and synaesthetic
experiences were offered. It is worth
recalling the evolution of stores: when
we realized that all that packaging did
not make sense (!) bulk sales returned.
And, consequently, the delight to see
and smell the boxes of spice in bulk; dip
the hands into sacks of grain; hear the
gurgling of liquids refilling our jugs.
That was the source of inspiration for
the very sophisticated Experience Stores
of today that exist both in the luxury
category (wrap yourself up in the soft
cashmere from goat; smell Chanel number 500, limited edition; hear the clink
of gold doubloons salvaged from the
seabed) and the radical sports category
(hugging sweaty sumo wrestlers, running in the rain after a taxi wearing 10cm stiletto heels). The Tactilerantes
were the next step, especially when
campaigns against obesity showed that
eating and drinking together was the
main leisure activity in large cities. After gastronomy, Tactilenomy was welcomed with the refinement and variety
of tactile experiences offered to groups
of friends gathered together.
As a counterpoint to anesthesia we
have synesthesia: various senses working together. Through synesthesia, we
expand the states of consciousness and
perception, so valuable in the civilizatory passage we are experiencing. Before,
we learned through conditioning and
changed when forced by suffering. Today, we have come to learn and change
by choice and co-authorship. By expanding our repertoire of perceptions we expanded our repertoire of meanings.
If life is movement, creation, and
expansion; its opposite is fear that promotes paralysis, repetition, contraction.
We evolve when we cease to fear, because fear is the greatest enemy of creation, transformations, cooperation,
collective. The offspring of fear - distrust, blame, judgment, envy, fear of
ridicule, of losing, of being wrong - prevented transformation processes, since
they blocked experience, knowledge
and, hence, understanding.
The task of moving from fear to
trust is arduous, after all, the culture
that fosters fear and separateness has
been with us for millennia. Just as commonplace as “passing the virus” was
“Passing the antifear”; in any action or
activity, ask yourself: “Does this
strengthen confidence or spread fear?
After “delete” came “defear”. The process of unraveling the fear that permeated all kinds of communication, education, creation. The evident positive
results bear witness to the success
achieved. Which makes absolute sense.
In ASESTE activities, surrender,
trust, openness, and boldness at the
time of the experience are dealt with.
The experience is a moment of synthesis, of wholeness. Analysis only takes
places in the next steps, of reflection,
to benefit from what was experienced.
Layer three : Emotion –
Change of State
In a previous chapter we mentioned “To
be, or being: that is the question”, stating that if Shakespeare had written in
Portuguese, probably this would be the
enunciation of his famous phrase. One
of the first steps towards the desirable
world was the realization of the enormous difference between “to be” and
“being.” A characteristic of ours (fat, depression, shyness) is a feature of is or of
being? War is inevitable or being
inevitable?
125
Inauguration of the Cart of the
Senses School
Today will be the inauguration of the “Cart of
the Senses” School, whose mission is to use the
five senses to provide enjoyable education.
The school and its faculty (students, teachers,
supporters, family and community) will gather
for a great community game that will celebrate
the senses and memory.
Practices such as these will be held in the dayto-day of the school, by stimulating the senses,
promoting integration between human beings
and nature, as follows:
• Sight: stimulate games and exercises in observation and contemplation of colors, shapes,
nature, and human beings;
• Hearing: will be exercised by listening to each
other and by encouraging the perception of the
sounds of nature;
• Smell: use of scents and aromas in the environment and nature to awaken, encourage; and
share the recollection;
• Taste: stimulating tastings and exchanging
stories and memories, with time to savor;
• Touch: daily hug sessions, exploring touch
between people in daily life.
João Fabio Scabora, Haydée Agostini, and Maria Cecília de Campos, Brazil 2010
126
desirable new world
Discern truth from lies
The empowerment of people
starts in schools, from the development of critical thinking
and learning to distinguish
what is true or false for each
individual, based on the
knowledge one has of oneself,
and of the community to
which one belongs.
Fernando Beda, Valentino Ruy,
Maria Cristina Meirelles, Margarida Maria A. Prado; Hellmuth, Israel José Eloy Ferreira.
Brazil, 2008
In “Tactilerants” one can try out all kinds of
experiences of the five senses. Angela León, 2012
Fantasy and imagination hint at
how things could be – propose processes, disclose potentials. Knowledge and
experience show how things actually
are – make diagnoses, limiting possibilities. We adopt sustainable mentality
and habits, when we realize that everything in nature (and therefore in us...)
is cyclic and changing. When we realize
that things are being and not only are,
we notice that changes of state are
possible and, therefore, we could move
from where we were to a state of
sustainability.
Move from paralysis to action,
from idea to practice, from potential to
performance, from individual to collective. Our culture was unsustainable, because it did not realize that changes of
state are possible, besides being necessary. Failure to differentiate “to be”
from “being” was due to the separation between the static What, and connected to the to be the, dynamic How
connected to being. Not by chance did
we devote ourselves more to theory
and results (What) than to practice and
procedure (How). But to know (theory)
things is not the same as to understand
them (theory + practice). We got out of
the impasse by developing technologies in their original sense - techné as
art and skill, technology. The expanded
concept included “hard” and “soft”
technologies, tangible and intangible,
theory and practice, to know and to
experience.
We then developed Soft Technologies To Facilitate Changes of State and
most of them stemmed from contact
with emotions. Observing Humors and
Flows is something practiced from early
on, ever since the observation of water
and its cycles. Emotions or humors are
revealed through our inner waters, dry
with fear; dampened by excitement;
overflowing with sadness. If we mirror
ourselves in the changing states of water in Nature it is easy to see that sometimes we are vaporous and airy, in others we flow and surrender, or in other
still, we are steady and frozen. However, often we do exactly the opposite: we
are vaporous and ambiguous when we
should be as firm as ice, or frozen when
we should let go. Simple. But it was extremely effective not to be a cloud in
Council meetings, or frozen in the
wedding anniversary.
Another technique used was the
aforementioned Activation of Empathy,
an humongous effort that lasted nearly
two decades, but was successful. Today,
no learning process or transformation is
possible without an affective and emotional foundation. We know that emotion sets us in motion, mobilizes us. In motion, moving.
127
Layer four : Thinking –
Convergence and Analogies
Note that only now we have reached
the layer corresponding to thinking. Before, the educational process started
from here: contents, information, thinking. Today, they are much more effective, because we desire knowledge,
which is worked by our feelings, mobilizes our emotions and, when it reaches
thinking, it already has a solid basis...
Our earlier history was constructed
relying on choices between this OR that:
patriarchy OR matriarchy; science OR religion; reason OR emotion; local Or global; economy OR humanism. Comprehensive theories and practices promoted the
effective transformations we experienced and that allowed differences to
be a solution, not a problem.
From Or to AND was the other Soft
Technology widely adopted, whose
function was essentially linked to language: every time an OR appeared in
the conversation, we would ask: “Is it really OR, or could it be AND?” For example, “I don’t know if I will play the harp
or dedicate myself to massage”, adding
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desirable new world
Global Emotional Training
Program for Schoolchildren
This morning, the Ministry of Education officially
approved the Global Emotional Training Program for schoolchildren, which aims to put children in touch with their emotions. This will enable them to identify them and accept them. The
purpose is to facilitate integral human development in the areas:
• Environment;
• Conscious Economy;
• Social Relations;
• Mind-body-spirit Relationship.
In so doing, the idea is for individual achievements to be translated into collective well-being
through education.
Giselle Barilleau, Andrea Jacome, and Veronica
Muria, Mexico, 2010
AND resulted in innovation: a technique
for finger and rhythmic massage. Just as
essential Intensive Convergence Training, where practitioners receive belts according to their competence increase.
All individuals practice convergence,
with greater or lesser mastery. To act as
manager in the Macro Moderator (for-
Empathy
Include basic exercises in school programs to increase sensitivity and sharpen the perception of children to
bring them much closer to one another. For example, if a child hurt someone, the pain she inflicted will fall
back upon her. The child will feel appreciative toward the other by experiencing, first hand, the other´s pain.
With telepathy, everything will be much easier; imagine what our world would be if we managed by means
of meditation exercises, music, yoga, and others, to develop more sensitivity in children and adults, eliminating distances, differences.
Only then, would we sense the community we are and the interdependence among us all.
Érika Mota, Eliane Roemer, Leila Garcia, Ronnie Campos Mello, São Paulo, 2009.
merly the State) one must have to be a
Black Belt In Convergence, since the art
of converging resources and ideas is the
basis for cooperation, vision, and action
related to the collective. After centuries
of a culture of exclusion, we are finally
thinking and acting only in a comprehensive7 way and only in Memorials and
Museums is it possible to know the past
forms of communication, which interestingly enough, used and abused of
the word “exclusive”, as the best one
might wish for.
7
Find at www.portal.mec.gov.br the policy for
inclusive education by the Brazilian government
The Trans Language Translation
Apps were the 2.0 version of the traditional translators. For example, the very
structure of this text, constructed
through the association of Jung´s basic
psychological functions, the four
elements, our physiology, and the stages of an Educreative process. These apps
help us to understand the similarities
that exist between each language or activity. For example, the seven colors of
the rainbow and the seven musical
notes are similar. As such, the “language
of color” can be translated into the language of “sound”. Once again, biomimicry served as a guideline: Nature has
many examples of similarities and synthesis. For instance, compare the spectrum of electromagnetic waves to the
development of a fetus, where there is
a recapitulation of the evolution of species8. This translation of one language
to another can be done at many levels
and allowed the choice of the most appropriate language to work on a particular aspect. Chromotherapy, aromatherapy, music therapy began to be
commonly used not only in healing
places, but also in decoration and even
in conflict resolution.
The function of these synthesis exercises was to simplify processes, develop abstract thinking, and prepare
Translator of the Universe Apprentices, people capable of drawing parallels9, comparisons, convergences, and
similarities. Through this practice,
reading the world becomes less com8
plicated, which gives us more confidence to decide and act. This empowerment, directly proportional to
uncomplication, was so obvious that it
became a campaign: Uncomplicate to
be more complex. It was found that
the more complex an issue, the simpler
should be the way to approach and
describe it. To give up complicated language as a way of showing off knowledge has turned many a Pluriversity
thesis into a best seller.
Just as the synthesis exercises, obtained by analogue processes, also seek
the How corresponding to each What,
so the gap between theory and practice
Recapitulation Theory: “The ontogeny recapitulates
phylogeny”.
9
This is the title of the research carried out by the
author with the support of the Vitae for the Arts
Fellowship award, 1990-92.From them came the analogies
that inspired this chapter.
129
Looking at the spectrum of Magnetic Waves it becomes evident that much of what surrounds us is similar:
electricity, sound, light, star dust; all have the same nature with varying wavelengths.
130
desirable new world
Mobile Peace: Zeppelin that Heals
Through Beauty
We are in 2051, and a Zeppelin is being
launched to fly over zones of conflict and cities.
On the body of the vehicle are illuminated signs
with transforming phrases and images. The
lights, sounds, and scents are emitted by the
Mobile Peace to take chromo therapy, aromatherapy, and music therapy to the community
it’s flying over, spreading well-being. Furthermore, it sprays nano petals that touch the positive side of people, encouraging generosity, ethics, affection, solidarity, and creativity. Lafayette
Álvaro do Amaral Lapa and Tania Plaper Tarandach, São Paulo, 2008.
decreases every day. We are also carefully prepared to find the most appropriate language to deal with each issue,
one that best combines form and content. Recognizing patterns, feeling
rhythms, understanding cycles prepare
us for the next step.
Similarities: the spiral is one of the basic forms of life, manifest in movement, in galaxies, or in what grows and buds.
Layer five : Intuition –
The Part and the Whole
Sustainability is no longer an adjective
and has indeed become the culture
that drives our daily lives, when,
through the previously described practices – a multidimensional 4DxT outlook of interdependent and collaborative daily living – we were finally able
to feel, and not just understand, the
obvious. We are Part of a Whole. A
child may question, “Does the cell of
my elbow know that it is an elbow
cell? Does it understand what I am, my
city, country, and planet?“10
Our organism is a microcosm that
enables us to understand the macrocosm. And to understand, as we have
seen, is crucial to choose and act. Understand (= to know + to experiment) the
Universe is impossible, but if the part
contains the whole – as shown by genetics, fractals, the holographic principle –
10
This was one of the questions that most intrigued
me in my childhood, I mean, my Potentia.
to understand yourself is a way. This is
not merely a lovely philosophy: it is a
functional principle of Nature, whose
forms and functions are built according
to patterns that repeat themselves and
are similar.
Perception of these similarities facilitates understanding and, therefore,
choice and action. After centuries of
analytical culture and education, we
have finally developed our synthesis
capability, built upon the search for
similarities, the most essential and simple part, because therein lie the points
of convergence.
Synthetic thinking has become central to the extent that life was becoming increasingly complex and accelerated. It was no longer possible to collect
and analyze data calmly before making
decisions. The rational was too slow. It
was necessary to develop intuition, because it was the only means to achieve
the agility and breadth needed to act
harmoniously in such unstable times.
We started to practice “listening”,
fundamental when one is part of a
whole... There was a return of ball-
room dancing (indeed, one of the
most effective forms of therapy in today’s hospitals). Furthermore, women
and men have learned to listen to each
other and it did much to resolve the
crisis of affection, at the beginning of
the 21st century.
Furthermore, there was a boom in
all kinds of artistic work to arouse what
was still dormant and potential in much
of the population. All kinds of bodywork. Martial Arts, Yoga, and all that
required contact with the inner universe. Mythologies from all sources,
since they are an extremely refined way
to contact symbolic language. There
was a proliferation of Dream Registration and Dissemination Techniques, as
well as of Dreameries.
About Educreative Spaces
Educreational, Educommunication, Educultural, Edutainment, Edutechnologic,
Edusustainable, Educreative Spaces (former schools) now have all the possible
131
Personal Dreameries
The Personal Dreamos allow retrieval and retention of the best dreams of each individual.
Now available also in shareable version, in the
universal language. To access them just...
Silvina Martinez, Buenos Aires, 2008
Spreading of Skills
A law which states that all individuals must
share (teaching, showing, sharing) with at least
five people, a piece of knowledge, a cultural
product, or a skill, was enacted.
This will occur in technology centers/communities that will occupy urban cultural centers,
former car parking buildings (which no longer
exist...) etc. In these centers, all the technological resources will be available to enable cultural exchange.
There is also the possibility for this exchange of
knowledge and skills to occur at times when
cultural equipment is idle, thus promoting
visitation.
Maria Candida Di Pierro and Daniela Vianello,
Brazil, 2010.
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desirable new world
Authors: Tania Sabaget and Mauricio Sabra,
São Paulo, 2010.
aspects that should be covered in this
transition phase that that we are in.
Early in the ‘10s, it became clear that
“environmental education” could not
cope with all aspects that needed to be
addressed in the transition stage we
were undergoing. From then on, the
“Sustainability” discipline was introduced. Later, though was also devoted
to “Educational System Sustainability”.
Gradually it became evident that, similarly to what had happened with the
economic and political systems, mere
adjustments to the old model would
not suffice. Adjusting did not bring
about results: another model of education was needed, where sustainability
was concept and practice. This would be
the element able to change mentalities
and habits. Teaching how to make harmonic choices and to be aware of the
consequences. To awaken in people the
desire for change and to empower
them to do so. And to do all this in a
collaborative, diverse, and amusing way.
Of course, this is too long a subject
to be covered in such little space. But
we believe that it may be helpful to
Nonviolence School
A school of practices and knowledge that foster
harmonious coexistence for all groups (from
couples to nations!), creating a world without
violence in relationships. This awareness comes
from a view of school, where everything is negotiated, starting with what the space is like, methodology, including what will be transmitted.
There is no pre-established model, each venue
develops its own version, forms its own knowledge and practices. It is possible to have schools
operating in the current model, or schools located in parks.
Ana Terra, Vandré Brilhante, and Victor Estevão,
São Paulo, 2009.
share at least a small part of the skills
that were dealt with in the ‘20s. We selected those associated with “Lending a
Helpful Hand to the Future” that are included in this book and were part of
Crie Futuros, a movement of the early
21st century that addressed subjects on
the civilizatory transition of that
period11.
11
And that are described in Chapter 1.
LENDING A HAND
TO THE FUTURE
A new operational “system”:
Changing Mentalities to Change
Habits.
Operate from the perception that our
world is not just “environment”, but also “society” and that everything that exists has an interdependent relationship.
BB Be able to feel interdependence as experience and not a mere concept;
BB Develop a sense of belonging and feel
connected;
BB Develop systemic and synthetic
thinking;
BB Seek the functional principles common
to the Universe (macrocosm) and to our
own universe (microcosm).
TWO equivalent coordinates:
tangible/structural and intangible/
procedural
Operate through the perception that
every product or process always has a
tangible/structural aspect and another
intangible/procedural one; that there is
equivalence between them and that
they must be identified to ensure that
they are in equilibrium.
BB Develop the ability to identify tangible
and intangible components in any product
or process;
BB Differentiate structural and procedural,
product and process, form and function, to
have and to use;
BB Be a connector, “modem”, integrating
and articulating languages and areas;
THREE phases of time: past, present,
and future
Seeing processes in time, realizing that
everything that exists in the present is
an outcome of the past and determines
what will happen in the future.
BB Understand the value of time and be
able to manage and enjoy it;
BB Find oneself in time: understand the
past, live the present, see the future;
BB Understand the cyclical nature of
processes;
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It’s time to eliminate clocks.
Time schedules were eliminated from schools.
They have become places of leisure, where one
learns by playing. With doors open all the time,
anyone can come and go anytime, day or night.
One can stay as long as desired. Without pressure or external impositions.
Ana Carolina Ayué and Maria Florencia, Rosario,
Argentina, 2010.
FOUR dimensions of sustainability in
the processes and values
Act considering the various forms of
wealth, and therefore sustainability,
considering social, environmental, economic and cultural heritage and results.
BB Be able to acknowledge the social, cultural, environmental, and economic dimensions in all aspects of life;
BB Be able to recognize resources and value
in these four dimensions of sustainability;
BB Guide choices according to the balance
between the four dimensions;
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desirable new world
FIVE “Hows” of sustainability: care,
trust, potencies, flow, and collaboration.
For each “What”, make sure there is a
“How”, avoiding theories detached
from practice.
BB Prioritize “care” as a purpose;
BB Hold trust as a premise;
BB Recognize, enjoy, and recombine the
existing potencies;
BB Promote the balance of four-dimensional
4DxT flows;
BB Create collaborative environments and
relationships.
Educational Server
Created to establish a quality network connecting the schools, where grades are no longer used, instead, intangibles are now used for evaluating, and now the final end-of-the-year tests are based only on three key
questions:
• What did you think of this school year?
• What have you learned?
• What do you think we could do to improve?
From these, parameters can be set to improve
the quality of teaching and student involvement, and education with fewer hierarchies
and programs.
Marcio Ferreira de Araujo, São Paulo, 2010.
The school will have a swimming pool, covered in Winter discovery and open in Summer. It will be
surrounded by chimneys with tubes of hot air outlets to dry us. Adriá and Mark, Barcelona, 2009.
EDUCATION AND FUTURE
New cognitive realities – Studies disclose that constant exposure to digital
stimuli, such as games, mobile equipment and overlapping images may affect
the brain and the way it perceives things and processes information.
Rosa Alegria, São Paulo, 2011
Vice-Chairman of the NEF - the Future Studies Center at PUC-SP
Director of the Brazilian Node of the Millennium Project
“The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and
write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn.”
135
Alvin Toffler
It is in the schools that new generations will learn to create the future
they desire. After all, we have been learning only about the past. How
about also learning the future?
Looking back and going over the last twenty-five years in an imaginative flashback, it is possible to have a fair idea of how immense are the changes we are
living today and that will from now on advance at an even faster pace. We had
no AIDS, no genetically manipulated food, no mobile phones, and no internet.
The sheep Dolly, the attack on the Twin Towers and the invasion of Wikileaks
would have seemed the result of a delusional imagination. If current trends
point to acceleration, this century will see technological changes on a scale 80
times greater than in the 20th century. Facing this new world, what can schools
and learning centers do to avoid that the future shock, foreseen by Alvin Tofler
in the 80s, be so intense? How can we take advantage of these changes?
Studying for the Future - A definitive feature of a society is its attitude in relation to time. Do our schools prepare people for what’s coming? Certainly not!
The changes we are constantly undergoing can only be refined into solutions if
we are able to look to the future.
Learning to unlearn – The time of the specialist honored by the industrial era
is coming to an end. The knowledge era requires latitudinal, multifunctional,
multicompetent profiles.
The school that comes from within – There is no school that deals with interiority. It is as if we were living only one side of reality and throwing away
the entire creative potential. After all, we are complete. The only species able
to face the outside world (horizon of changes) and the inner world (mental
horizon of imagination).
Study of the Millennium Project – Possible Futures for Education and
Learning 2030
The South Korean Ministry for Education and Human Resource Development
has asked researchers from the Millennium Project, an international network
of futurists researchers to which I belong, for an evaluation of future possibilities in the field of education and learning for the year 2030. What can we do
today to take advantage of these new possibilities? Since new ideas can lead
to unexpected routes, it is prudent to ask: what might be their negative and
positive outcomes? These are some of the possibilities aimed at high-tech
world for the education in 2030:
•
Just-in-time knowledge and learning
•
Individualized education
136
•
Use of simulations
•
E-teaching: electronic intelligence systems for teachers
•
Continued assessment of individual learning processes to prevent
emotional instability and mental disorders
•
Computers with extra-human intelligence
•
Artificial microbes to enhance intelligence
•
The teaching of morals and implementation of new metrics (emotional intelligence and spiritual intelligence)
•
The global brain: the development of collective knowledge on the way to
forming a global brain and new stages of human consciousness
•
Inter-religious and inter-cultural Studies
•
Increased use of games for learning, including online games
•
Modular units of knowledge: management tools allowing each student to
download what he needs
•
Individualized nutrition to improve cognitive development
•
Genetically enhanced intelligence
•
Use of global on-line simulations as tools for social research
•
Use of public communications to support the pursuit of knowledge
•
Artificial Intelligence Portable Devices
•
Complete mapping of human synapses to map the learning processes
•
Mechanisms to keep adult brains healthier for longer periods
•
Chemistry for brain enhancement
•
Web 17.0 – integration of data, analysis, discussions, forums, into an organized and semantic structure. The Semantic Web that uses virtual reality
and contains an intelligent sub-system
•
Integrated lifelong learning system
•
Programs aimed at eliminating prejudice and hatred
They probably will not be implemented by 2030 due to cost issues, political interests and especially to the fear of institutions of losing their installed power,
when faced by new educational capabilities. All these possible futures signal
strategic pathways leading to a new system of teaching and learning. These are
assumptions of a sustainable economy, viable only with the appearance of new
leaders that will arise from a new educational system.
To make of the world we have the world we want
Maria Arlete Gonçalves, 2008
Journalist, Culture Director of Oi Futuro.
Communication technologies are the so called suppressors of time and
space foreseen by the ancient Vedas, bringing people together and reducing
geographical distances. With them it is possible to work towards approximating those different, bridging social gaps. To work with and for youth, the
heirs of this world that we also inherited and are pledged to pass on as one
that is more positive, constructive, balanced, fair and healthy. A world that
gives clear signs of what needs to be rethought, reinvented, recycled, shared.
A world that increasingly seeks humanity. To carry out this mission requires
the imagination that creates and the technology that leverages, which
makes it, happen.
A desirable future is the one we create every day, thinking of our great-greatgrandchildren. A future where there will be more equal opportunity for those
who are part of the social fringes. The so-called common urban youth, now
considered a victim or perpetrator of society, will have increased access to technologies and contemporary languages. As such, instead of being portrayed, it
will be able to portray in a competent way their outlook of the world, the reality
of the communities where they live, and thereby change the surrounding environment. In the world we desire, the youth will have voice and chance: it will be
the protagonist. After all, the future belongs to them.
We believe that the democratization of access to culture, the fostering of citizenship and the new technologies will bring about significant changes, not only
137
in content and aesthetics of mass media, but also broaden horizons, break
down prejudices, narrow the differences. This is because, even though we live in
a mediatic era, of knowledge and of information, in which we are flooded by
news of what happens in the world in real time, the images and reports we receive are still in the hands of small groups comprised of large corporations. The
wide world of the poor, the underprivileged, the deprived is only shown from
the perspective of those who dominate the media.
Corporate social responsibility will progressively increase in the future. Business ethics, transparency, commitment to the environment and to sustainable development, the social private investment, social actions that make
their knowledge and technologies available to the community from which
they extract wealth will be fundamental conditions for the survival of enterprises, when consumers will be increasingly aware and less avid. The contribution of citizens will be a brand attribute and major differential at purchase. Power, success, glamour and status will no longer be arguments for
sale and will be replaced by recycle, reuse, exchange, respect and responsibility. Enterprises will consistently encourage volunteerism among their employees. I see the creation of a Leave for Social Cause, in which enterprises make available time and remuneration for employees to carry out projects
that contribute to human development.
For a desirable future, I see a Museum of Humanity Values, which will show
future generations examples of the wealth of human thought and behavior so
that these are not lost in time. Values such as generosity, honesty, ethics, love,
solidarity, word, trust and everything that may ensure humanity to the man of
the future. Creating a museum to preserve, store and disseminate the values of
humanity, since many are in a process of rapid extinction, such as Honor, Faith,
Principles, Word (in the sense of commitment), Heroism, etc…
138
In this wonderful exercise that is the Creation of the Future, some other ideas
occur to me for tomorrow’s bank of ideas. For example: The PEV (Place for Experimenting the Void) to detoxicate people from the excess of information they
are submitted to daily. Their slogan: “Delete to delight.”
Along the same line of thought, I suggest the PCS – Place of Consumerism
Slowdown. In the near future, where there will be greater awareness of being and not having, there will be units of re-education for sustainable living,
which will teach people to understand and free themselves from uncontrollable
and insatiable desire to buy, and to learn new ways to live better with less.
Passion Leave – enterprises grant leave to collaborators who are in a state of
being in love, that is to say temporarily incapacitated for activities that require
concentration, focus, reflection and production. This way, enterprises will also
collaborate to sustain the level of enamoration, without which the world would
be dull and much sadder.
The sky is the limit when it comes to imagine a better world. Is all of
this just a fantasy, a dream? How about seeing them come true in the
future? We just have to start!
Museum of Human Values. Illustration by Katheryn
Cabrera, Dominican Republic, 2009.
Create Futures Comics Contest. Alexandre Szolnoky, Brazil, 2011.
139
140
desirable new world
Alexandre Szolnoky, Brazil, 2011.
TAGS: aprendizagem
- ciclos –– competências
– conhecimento
– –
TAGS: affection
autonomy – choice
– connection
convergênciaconvergence
– criatividade
– diversidade
- educação
–
– creativity
–culture
– cycles––emoção
fundamental
escola – expressão
fases da
vida–-flows
fisiologia
web - intuição - –
rights –- family
– fear
– gaiada
– interdependence
linguagem - love
pensamento
– pulsão
- sensação
– síntese
– tecnologia
– kronophagic
– means
and ends
– standards
–
– qualitativo regulation – self knowledge – synapse
67
aprender, Criar,
BE, RELATE, CONNECT
comunicar
“Optimism is a strategy for making a better future. Because unless you believe
that the future can be better, you are unlikely to step up and take responsibility
for making it so.”
“Frase”
Noam Chomsky
Autor
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desirable new world
Adão Itusgarrai, 2009.
A Neat World / End of body dictatorship: bald, cellulitis, belly, buttocks are a “must” / Genetically engineered vines, yield wine bottles / Scientists have discovered the anti-guilt pill.
Curiosities of the Forties
The dear reader who has followed us
this far must be curious about details
on communication, design, fashion,
and the arts in our time. This is such an
encompassing subject that it will be
addressed in the next volume, where
we will discuss how culture, communication and their tools contributed to
the transition we underwent in re
cent years.
Just to give you a small sample, we
listed some interesting inventions and
processes. For instance, in matters of
fashion, much has changed. The recent
experiments with Teletransport Color
Change gave us new options in postdisintegration atomic rearrangement.
Now it is possible to choose, for example, skin color (violet has become a success) or hair type (straightening is over!).
Soon we will be able to choose our skin
shades on the Pantone scale. Indeed, it
is noteworthy that the policies of quotas or any other such thing associated
with physical or racial form ceased to
exist long ago; now the type of wrapping humans come in is unimportant.
We believe that there was a contribution by the Memorials of Current
Barbarities and the Simulators of the
Future. We could watch puzzled physicians examining little shrunken old
ladies, with fake bouncing breasts and
buttocks popping out of their wrinkled
skin as if they were soccer balls. Perhaps,
the decline of interest in cars also
changed the relations with the body; no
longer does a chassis have to go to the
143
auto body shop for refurbishing in
order to be more coveted.
The much dreamed of Flying Backpacks exist today and carry us, but we
can also use Flying Attire. In a nice tangible / intangible balance, the invention
of Eye Drops for Myopia of the Eyes
was followed by Eye Drops For Myopia
of the Glance, increasing the ability to
see with the soul.
Soon after Rio + 20, other compensatory credits were created – the first attempts to regulate flows in 4DxT dimensions. Dread Credits, paid for activities
that used to generate fear and eroded
trust. Credits for Time Consumption,
paid for kronophagic1 activities that
wasted excessive amounts of people´s
cognitive surplus. Diversity Credits were
the first, and soon showed heavy impact
on audiovisual production. At the beginning of the century it was common
for the same show to be featured in almost all theaters, jeopardizing diversity.
The credits paid fueled a strong independent production. Soon, sexy TV
1
That consume time: Krono - time; Fagos - eat
hosts that influenced their children audience through their ways of acting and
dressing disappeared, and a curious result was that there was a drop in teenage pregnancy.
Increasing acknowledgment of diversity as a hallmark of more sustainable and harmonious times has even
led to the formulation of Fundamental
Diverse Rights: having rights to mass
education, housing, or healthcare only
is not enough. We now have the Right
to Diverse Housing, Right to Diverse
Healthcare, and to diversity in Education, Family, Work, Citizenship and all
other areas of everyday living.
Very significant and big changes
occurred in terms of love relationships,
such as the new profession known as
Lust Plunger, a therapist for those cases
in which no one took the initiative; or
the reform of the Foreign Affairs Office, which progressively took over the
increasingly frequent cases of distance
love. In the ‘10s, we saw a multiplication of sexual options, reaching a total
Caio Castello (left) and Sarah (right).
FILE Rio de Janeiro, 2011
Frank R.Paul, 1928
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desirable new world
Demassification of tastes
An extensive demassification of tastes and
preferences will occur. This process will begin
with the democratization of the media, the
appreciation and protection of cultural
products, and freedom of expression. The
“World Day of Small Cultural Production” will
be instated and all neighborhoods will get
organized to make it a great and important
integration event.
Carlos Eduardo, Leandro, Tais, and Olindo
Antonio, São Paulo, 2010.
Carlos Dala Stela, 2011
of fifteen , not to mention the most bizarre preferences. Family formation followed this diversity, especially thanks to
In Vitro Fertilization and the like. In the
years twenty, this overload of experiments led to a return to more ordinary
patterns, also because genders were relating better.
2
2
Hetero; bi; transvestite; transvestite - bi; transexual;
transexual - bi; bachelor and this two times (each gender)
in addition to the hermaphrodites!
Elements that caused quite a stir
and discomfort, but had undeniable effect, were the Affective Footprints and
the Index of Love Relationships Sustainability (ILRS). Actually, these matters
were sometimes addressed with mathematical coldness. “Coefficient of variation of partners vs. annual amount of
unhappiness generated.” “Coefficient
of age difference vs. bank account of
one of the partners”, “Coefficient of
balance of giving and receiving.” Or
even a few more simple ones: “What
did this relationship cause? Restricted?
Expanded? Diversified? Nurtured? Did
you feel more confident? “. The truth of
the matter is that some differences have
surfaced, for example, the number of
defenders of sustainability that had actually been consumers of people, with
very low ILRS and Negative Affective
Footprint. Fortunately, this phase is behind us. In the early ‘10s, it was evident
that we were living a moment of Sexual
Liberation and Repression of Affection.
So, an intense Affection Liberation and
Be , Relate , Connect
Sex Sophistication release operation
was launched. In this, as in other areas
of life, we dedicated ourselves to fighting against trivialization, in all forms,
and moved from quantity to quality.
Profound and surrendering affection and love relationships, have an extraordinary sensitizing potential. With
them came all the other changes that
were already under way, mainly in the
learning and communication processes.
The history of Humanity, which already
has a steeply increasing pace accelerated even more.
Our history in a year
and a day.
In order to set a time parameter, let´s
place the history of Earth, with its four
billion years3, next to a building with
more than one hundred stories and
400-meters high. We will then realize
that the Homo genus would have ap3
Peter Russel, in The White Hole in Time, available in
video and book.
peared only within an inch of the top
floor! We are very, very recent in the
evolutionary history of life, and yet, we
have an extraordinary ability to change
the world around us. Why? What grants
us this capability?
This becomes evident in another
parallel, in which we transform the one
million eight hundred thousand years of
145
that meager centimeter mentioned, into
one year. We then find that we progressed very slowly, until what would
correspond to December 10th of this fictitious year. On this day, would begin
communication through language and,
from then on, the story picks up speed.
The 24th day corresponds to the Upper
Paleolithic Revolution, with its cave
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desirable new world
Ângela Léon, 2012.
paintings, incipient language, and symbolic exchanges. Our entire history, as
we know it, takes place in the last day of
this one year that corresponds to one
centimeter! The birth of Christ would be
at 2 pm, the Discoveries and the Press at
9:30 pm, the Industrial Revolution at
11:00 pm, and everything that our life is
today, just a few minutes before midnight of the 31st day…
From this analogy it becomes clear
that when we begin to communicate
and exchange symbols, that is, finally
becoming cultural beings, everything
speeds up greatly. Especially when potentialized by the use of tools like the
media, or ICT. Culture, Creativity and
Communication are Our Nature. Kangaroos jump, algae do photosynthesis, humans create. At the end of the ‘10s, the
hypothesis that creativity, knowledge,
culture – our much celebrated intangibles – are the one characteristic that defines us as biological beings has become
widely adopted. We are Culture and
Creativity, and with them, we transform our surroundings. Of course, there
are other animals that have language or
culture, but we have the chance to play
with them, exchange, share, translate,
remix, relate. And all this added to free
will. Hence, the enormous transformative potential that enabled us, in such a
short time of existence on the planet, to
promote such a transformation.
What for? This was the question;
for, after all, knowing the purpose of
each thing is one of the premises for
our sustainability. Could it be that we
had a specific function within the social and environmental ecosystem of
planet Earth?
Gaia, the Earth as a Living Being In the mid-twentieth century, man
walked on the moon and, for the first
time, we had a full view of the Earth,
beautiful and blue, moving through
space at 107,000 kilometers per hour.
This picture really was worth more than
a thousand words and changed the
world, because seeing the Earth from
afar has given us the perspective that
we are one. The responsibility and the
feeling of oneness resulted in the advance of ecological awareness. And, at
the same time, appeared the Gaia Theory, proposed by the scientist James
Lovelock4, which was then expanded by
others, such as the Nobel Prize laureate,
Lynn Margulis.
The name Gaia is a tribute to the
primordial mother-goddess of Greek
mythology and, according to this hypothesis, Earth is a living being, because
its biosphere has the capability to generate, maintain, and regulate the condi4
http://www.jameslovelock.org/
Medieval alchemical engraving.
Johannes Fabricius.
tions of its own
environment. In
recent decades,
this hypothesis had
greater acceptance,
to the extent that the
study and practice of interdependence made the interconnections
among all living things more evident.
As described by a child: “It is as though
everything was a pool and in this pool
there were some harder pieces, gelatin,
that are the living things. When the
pool water moves, everything moves.
When a small piece of gelatin moves,
everything moves. Everyone feels what
everyone does. Everyone feels what
everyone feels”
This is just what happened. We
sensed. And all that is sensed makes
sense. When we felt, we were affected
and the Gaia hypothesis was confirmed.
We were able to feel, to sense, because
we were all connected by the Web,
communication systems, GPS, satellites,
mobile phones that created a layer of
information and communication in real
time around the planet. And at the
time, just shortly over one decade ago,
we bought-in the Gaia hypothesis, we
understood our function as humanity. In
the evolution of live beings, the nervous
system is one of the last things to be
formed. We are Gaia´s Nervous System.
That is why we have this capability to
transform everything so fast. That is
why culture, creativity, and knowledge
are our Nature.
This perception had a greater impact than the falling of a giant meteor.
The Earth is a living being and we are
its nervous system. What a responsibility and what an opportunity! Consequently, much has been elucidated and
has given us the means to, in such a
short time, change so much. If we are
neurons, we need to connect and work
in integration; synapses are made by
ICTs, the circulation of information and
knowledge allows us to feel and experience Gaia and its processes. Note that
147
here are the three pillars that undergird
the framework of our book: Intangible
+ digital technologies + collaboration.
To feel part of the whole, connected, healed one of the great evils afflicting humanity and that in the past caused
so much fear, pain and war and, of
course, fanaticism. Finally, we feel that
we belong, are welcome. And when the
primeval deprivation was remedied, the
way was paved for real autonomy.
The drive for change was there,
there was a purpose: to be a good ner-
The Nervous
System of Gaia. Angela León,2012.
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desirable new world
vous system, able to feel with the greatest possible accuracy what happened to
Gaia and all her creatures. We had to
know the cycles, favor the flow, understand the time, and circulate information. Be affected.
This would only be possible if we
could go beyond our culture, transcend
it. Can a nervous system have neurons
that refuse to “synapsetyze” with others, for whatever reason? Or have starving or obese neurons? Patterns had to
be broken, to prevent us from falling
into the same habits and mentalities
that had generated an unsustainable
world. How to change our mentalities
and habits?
Transcending
Culture
Jaime Prades, Brazil, 2012.
Convergence of Disciplines had disclosed the enormous power of habit
and repetition. This revelation became
explicit through search engines, like the
late Google, which prioritized access to
what happens most often: the video
that appeared in the search is that with
the highest number of views. Something similar happens with our memory:
we remember the things that are associated with the greatest number of referrals. The same process is repeated in nature: the more something is repeated,
the more likely it is to last. Biologist
Rupert Sheldrake5 raised the Formative
Causation hypothesis, according to
which Nature operates by “habit” and
every element of nature contributes to
a kind of collective memory, Morphic
Resonance Fields, that act as matrices.
Simplified, this means that the more often an apple grows round and red, the
greater the probability that apples will
be round and red. Habit and repetition
shape evolution.
So, we converge. People and their
languages, using all technologies – both
hard and soft – to escape the shackles of
our culture, to deprogram ourselves, to
create other sensitivities and glances.
Some changes can happen by adjustment, such as a ripening fruit. Others,
5
Morphic Resonance, The Nature of Formative
Causation, 2009 edition.
Lucas Buarque,
FILE, Rio de
Janeiro, 2011.
only by changing state, like the metamorphosis of a butterfly. It became imperative to change state and get over
the caterpillar stage, both consumeristic
and crawling. Change mentalities and
habits, to deprogram repetition. Before,
we learned through pain and by error;
now, by choice and pleasure.
We started to leave behind our emphasis on the tangible, and it became
quite obvious that money – in all its
forms – was a means and not an end.
Interestingly, billionaires no longer exist
and there are few who want to devote
themselves to the stressful activity of
becoming millionaires. Much effort and
little result, since one cannot take along
assets to the hereafter, and the offspring, usually ill-prepared, quickly
squander the inherited fortunes. Why
buy designer-brand items, if everything
was fake and the result was banalization and generalized accessibility? There
is little distinction between the jeans
that is worn by a millionaire and the
one worn by a street vendor. Really
valuable things are of another nature.
Affection, learning, experiences,
creation, and care are the ends. All the
rest are merely means. We seek inner
comfort. Comfort for the soul and a clear
conscience. A bountiful heart filled with
affection, skin satisfied by soft touches,
and a mind full of intense memories. The
new and multiple values, metrics and
4DxT indicators that we developed
helped us to feel that what matters are
relationships; because it was through
them that we improve and evolve.
Previously, the life of the nobility
and celebrities was remarkable. Today,
we know that nothing is as amazing as
everyday life and no fiction comes near
to what it has to offer. People no longer
allow their desire, will, and good faith
to be hijacked by the media. The media
stopped showing bodies, persons and
situations that were set up and unreal
149
and that rendered so many people powerless and unhappier about their lives
and with what they had.
The first Renaissance came when
we got united geographically, a moment of external knowledge; conquest
of space; society and economy oriented
towards tangible goods and processes.
The second Renaissance came from inner knowledge, conquest of time and
from the quality, understanding, and
depth that it provides. From a new
economy and society built upon the
centrality of intangibles and the convergence between the areas and sectors it requires.
Cycles, Flows, Regulation
When we “synapsetize” and were able
to sense Gaia, we were also able to perceive flows and cycles in several 4DxT
dimensions and, thus, regulate them.
We note that in nature, in us, in processes, everything happens by pulses, alternating phases of expansion and con-
142
desirable new world
Profession PRISM MAN
Listening
To fight closed outlooks we need new
perspectives on existing things. The Prism Man,
with his utility belt that holds smells and other
recreational tools, helps people to relax and to
develop other outlooks beyond their reach,
releasing the different prisms that each one
carries inside.
Mario and Alberto, São Paulo, 2010.
In the future, people will be able to hear one
another in active, lively listening. They will be
entitled to enter the mind of others, and will
not be so worried about their ready-made
ideas. Creativity does not blossom within what
is already known. We will sail towards the
unknown!
Rita Mendonça, São Paulo, 2009.
The Gift that has changed the world
People of all ages, in all parts of the world,
woke up with a gift at their side. It was an
abundant and generous dose of good humor.
Everyone – without exception – was affected.
In the day that changed the history of mankind,
we had the chance to recycle grudges,
prejudices, worries, dreads, fears, sorrows,
hindrances. Everything was transformed into
lightness. And, as the packages were opened
and the good humor apportioned, the world
became better. We held hands. We added up
talents. Found solutions, and did what had to
be done to live fully. Today we celebrate it as
the Day of Grace, Laughter, and Joy.
Monica Cristina, Brazil, 2009.
traction. Now we choose and, according
to the context, we oscillate in a more
conscious and harmonious way, between the Concentrated / Mono and
Decentralized / Multi patterns. The Centralized is no longer called Dominant6,
because Power itself is no longer of interest. Of interest is the power of doing. And the power of being . The myth
of the survival of the fittest was overthrown. Nature is collaborative, cyclic,
flexible, changing, interdependent. So
are we, after all, we are nature, too...
6
As proposed by the previously mentioned Rianne
Eisler, in “The Chalice and the Blade”
Gabriella Vallu, FILE
Aware of cycles, we developed our
intuition better and, consequently,
made faster decisions according to the
common good and common sense. We
were able to detect cycles and the timing of each thing. Time needed for oneself and the other, respecting each
other´s rhythms. That changed personal,
professional, political relationships and,
of course, the processes of learning and
production. We no longer suffer when
we are in the “winter” phase, apparently barren, but where everything is
dormant and germinating. We no longer want to be endlessly fruitful. We
know that nothing in nature grows forever. In the 4DxT economy, and society,
the word growth was replaced by evolution. But evolution towards what?
We quit the Internet for a while
and dedicated ourselves to others. Practiced techniques, such as “How Cool!” 8,
where contact with others is based on
listening and accepting, on the premise
that what he or she is and does is really
Homo Estheticus7
cool! And of course it is, since there are
no identical human beings on the face
For centuries we have devoted ourof the Earth, or I should say, in Gaia´s
selves to criticizing, pointing out errors,
skin. The game “Fortunately and
identifying problems. The acidity of
Unfortunately”9 was also efficient: to
criticism was a measure of the intellectual competence of those who spread it
revise points of view on the facts of life
around. But in order to connect to and
it is enough to describe them sometimes
form the nervous system, one had to
with the word “fortunately” and somelove others. This required a new postimes with the word “unfortunately”
ture: to devote oneself to seeing the
The game “What Could Go Worse?”
best and positive in each person or conhelped us to see that everything is relatext. To work on existing potencies and
tive and that one can always be bolder.
see the glass half full, as I suggest
In this game, the person that wants to
throughout the book. We undergo indo something but is afraid of failure
tense training to see beauty in every
comes to realize his or her current situasituation of life, to realize the beauty in
tion. Afterwards, the person compares
ourselves and in others. And through
the situation he or she would have to
beauty we gain lightness and joy that
face if the idea actually failed, and ends
pave the way to the possibility of finally
establishing binding trust.
8
Infallible relational technique, by Wellington
Nogueira and his “Doctors of Joy’
7
See philosopher Michel Maffesoli, and others
9
Game by Adriana Klisys
151
by seeing that there is nothing to lose
or fear, because failure usually leads
back to the situation in which we already are. And, making the effort, the
person might just get somewhere else...
24- hours Wise Man Council. Can be telepathically
contacted to answer questions. The users must multiply the
advice received. Giselle Romano and Mariana Lafuente.
Illustration Paulo Lara, Dominican Republic, 2010.
142
desirable new world
Bionic Talking Moustache.
Anonymous. Rio de Janeiro, 2011.
Sunday lunch
We realize the importance of contacts and
welcome people who share a common history,
DNA, roots, and decided to retrieve a tradition
lost many years ago, the Sunday lunch. We
have created an Exchange of Experience and
Affection Network, in which each family shares
a special moment forming a Bank of Fondness,
Love, Experiences. Each family also has its own
Materializer to ensure that beloved family
members get together physically.
Fred Gelli and Roberta Jambor, São Paulo, 2010.
The colors, shapes, sounds, movement, and all sorts of experiences perceived through the (at least...) six senses,
prepared us to see beauty, trust, and devote ourselves to affection. As for dressing, we left behind the classic little black
dress or jeans and T-shirt, and carefully
chose to wear what best shows who we
are and what we feel each day. We no
longer intend to be anonymous and invisible, but rather, we want to be noticed and understood in our uniqueness.
The cities and places where everything
communicates, speaks, and provokes,
helped us. The forms of every thing
were carefully chosen to be functional.
Like the colors of this book, which combine the yellow of creation with the violet of transformation and with the
green of healing. And honor the diversity, lightness, and boldness of the Brazilian culture.
Realizing that creativity is our essence and nature, we engaged in all
forms of creation, expression, selfknowledge, and contact. This is how
drugs and narcotics were replaced by
sensory experiences of all kinds: create,
breathe, touch, move, like, transform,
invent. Synesthesia10 replaced anesthesia, since neurons must work with the
utmost sensitivity and perception.
Children play to learn and so, we
devoted ourselves to playing to develop
loving capacity and all forms of love.
We expanded the repertoire of degrees
and diversity of ties, previously restricted to friends, family, and spouses. Men
learned about complexity, long-term,
and care from women. Women, in turn,
learned about simplicity, focus, and
lightness from men. Women, always so
serious and sometimes boring, are now
learning to play and to have fun with
men. Being together began to be more
fun, and the kronophagic activities no
longer take up much time, which is now
dedicated to interaction and play to reinvent the world. Playing to find out
what others like, what makes us happy,
what is different, what brings us together, what we can build together.
Again, diversity was hailed as the solution and not as the problem.
10
Many senses working together
From Fear to the Now Turning into the nervous system of this
creature called Gaia meant to trust and
surrender. Establishing contact and ties
so that the flow of information and
feelings could tell us what was happening in each part of Gaia, what she needs,
likes, and asks for. We realized that this
was love. When we did not feel welcome or that we belonged, or when we
were not aware of our capacity to
choose, we operated out of fear. Our
commitment to building environments
and ties of trust was successful, we freed
ourselves from fear, and were able to
experience love.
When fear transmuted into trust,
the relationship with the future
changed. Before, it frightened us: panic (from the Greek “pan”, all) in the
original meaning of the word it is fear
of the whole. This fear of the breadth
of possibilities made us settle for the
repetition of familiar patterns. Once
we find this breadth fun and not scary
we allow ourselves distinct choices. We
forgive and accept a priori. We believe
that each one does his/her best, ac-
GTT - Global Telepathic Thought _
TACTILE
A satellite that connects people in a global
ritual was invented. People sit on the ground
and when they put their hands on the ground,
they become attuned with everybody else. In
this way, it is possible to exchange positive
and negative thoughts. The flow neutralizes
and creates balance and, in the end, everyone
goes away feeling lighter and empty, ready to
start all over again.
Fred Gelli and Roberta Jambor, São Paulo, 2010.
cording to their way of being, context,
time, and capacity.
Little by little we were breaking out
of the model and, each new person that
trusted and left fear behind, was one
step closer towards the birth of that other desirable world. One more, one
more11 one more. To the extent that each
person believed and adhered, flows of
trust were created, currents became increasingly intense, until it was no longer
possible to resist. We managed to break
through that barrier where dreams are
11
That perception appeared when accompanying the
lovely collaborative financing that made this book possible
The Time Elevator. Lourenço P. Duarte Braga, FILE, 2011.
Profession: Living story
More than storytellers, we shall have people
who will be “Living Stories”, who are able to
be and convey the history of many cultures
and people. Dressed as stars and planets, both
male and female, interposing the light of
different shooting stars.
Giovann Barontini, São Paulo, 2010.
153
142
desirable new world
no longer individual and become collective. And when they reached the collective unconscious they began to germinate and fertilize attitudes and choices.
The change foreseen by the prophecies took place, but it was not the end
of the world but the end of a world; the
end of a way of thinking and doing. The
pregnant world has changed state. We
went from surviving to living. Animals
are instinctive and reactive out of fear.
We, now driven by trust and love, could
finally be creative, as is fitting for a species that dominates languages, has free
will, and common sense.
We apply our creativity, free will,
and common sense to create desirable
futures. What for? To have desirable
presents.
The future is a North Star, a compass12. It’s like a tuning fork that tunes
and gives the tone of the present that
we have chosen. For it is in the here and
now that one can be happy, since the
before has passed and the after does
not yet exist. The Education for Aware-
ness that we had been practicing for
years, allowed us to live in the present
and enjoy time. The expression “Give an
F5”13 became recurrent: its reference to
the computer key with the “update”
function was appropriate, at a time
when we forgave the past and did not
fear the future. To “Give an F5” in all
our differences to enjoy the present
better. And to better accomplish our
mission as sensitive neurons.
What about war? Why don’t we
talk about war? Because it no longer
makes sense. It was the outcome of ignorance and, today, nobody believes in
it. There was even a time when some
governments attempted to incite war,
shortly after the 2013 Big Bubble, and
the Data Blackout created to cover up
responsibilities. But, when called to
serve, people chose not to go to war.
And if no one goes, there is no war...14
13
org.br/institucional
14
12
From there the logo of Enthusiasmo: a compass is for
orientation and the butterfly is for transformation.
This is one more of the awesome expressions
“hacked” by the “Circuito Fora do Eixo” http://foradoeixo.
See the one-minute film on this subject, directed by
Légis Schartzburd and myself, in the early 1990s. http://
www.youtube.com/watch?v=NRLu2cLx_N0
The Desirable and the Plausible
Future scenarios usually start from
conditions as they are in the present
and project them into the future. They
seek plausible futures. But what to do
when we want to change the conditions of the present and project other
things? Break with the present, and
dream of the desirable. And why do
we believe that the desirable is not
plausible?
Choose a plausible future and ask
yourself if it is what you want. If the answer is no, why consider that, although
undesirable, it is plausible? Do the opposite exercise and think of a desirable
future. Ask yourself if it is plausible. No?
And why not, since it is desirable? Why
not try? Usually, the worst that can happen in every choice we make is that failure can take us back to the same point
where we started. Why not try, since the
worst point of arrival is exactly the same
where we are?
Why not? Why is that so? What is
the purpose? This takes care of what?
We go back to being wise as children
and doubt everything; back to seeing
the many naked kings15. Our senses,
now so sharp, today clearly understand
whatever makes no sense in whichever
area of life, society, economy.
We are creativity and choice. We
have the ability to handle all languages.
We recreate our future at any moment.
It does not exist, yet. Anything is possible, even the desirable.
What does the future hold? We do
not know. But we do know that the visions of a metallic, sterile, homogeneous, symmetric, cold, mechanical, uniform world of the past have encouraged
us to do differently. We have changed
direction and that future did not
materialize.
All that we know about the world
that is arising is that it will be collaborative. There is no other way to secure the
time, resources, quality, and the harmony we desire. And that is possible.
15
Many of the futures described in
this work of fiction could be implemented. And soon.
Why not?
From the children’s fable, The Emperors New
Clothes, where only a child dares to comment on the fact
that the king is naked.
Dawn. Monique Deheinzelin. São Paulo, 2008.
155
156
d e s i r ab le n ew wor ld
Extract from the book "Images of the Future", by Fred Polak
In 1961, Fred Polak one of the pioneers in futures studies wrote a masterpiece: Images of the Future relating the development (or not…) of a culture
with how they imagine the future. Below are some paragraphs of the final
chapter in which he synthesizes this relation.1
(…) First, we found the positive image of the future at work in every instance of the flowering of a culture, and weakened images of the future as a
primary factor in the decay of cultures. The image of the future has been
represented as itself subject to a dialectical movement between the poles of
optimism and pessimism.
Second, we found that the potential strength of a culture could be measured
by measuring the intensity and energy of its images of the future. These images
were seen to act as a barometer indicating the potential rise or fall of a culture.
Third, the concept of the image of the future has made it possible to move
from diagnosis to prognosis. This is possible because of the intimate relationship between the image of the future and the future.
The image of the future can act not only as a barometer, but as a regulative
mechanism which alternately opens and shuts the dampers on the mighty
blast-furnace of culture. It not only indicates alternative choices and possibili1
Extract from http://storyfieldteam.pbworks.com/f/the-image-of-the-future.pdf Final
Chapter: New Perspectives, paragraphs 4 a 7
ties, but actively promotes certain choices and in effect puts them to work in
determining the future. A close examination of prevailing images, then, puts us
in a position to forecast the probable future.
Any culture which finds itself in the condition of our present culture, turning
aside from its own heritage of positive visions of the future, or actively at work
in changing these positive visions into negative ones, has no future unless
strong counterforces are set in motion soon. This view is of crucial importance
for practical policy. It opens up new vistas for policy-makers in the areas where
they still have freedom of planning and action.(…)
Credits, Acknowledgements, and History
“I’m interested in the future because it’s where I’ll spend the rest of my life.”
Woody Allen
142
desirable new world
Thanks to EVERYONE WHO made this book possible!
If it were not for the brave and unique outlook of my parents Gini and Jacques and my daughter Rita´s, this book would not exist.
This book was a collaborative process, the fruit of networking and team work. Without the dedication of this extremely agile and enthusiastic
team its realization would be impossible. Coordination and Supervision: Marina Alonso; Production: Dina Cardoso; Editorial Assistance: Felipe
Jordani ; English Translation: Eugenia Deheinzelin and William Krell (Special thanks to both!); Graphic Design: Helena Salgado, assisted by Carol
Lèfreve, Marilia Glaffira and Marianne Lépine; English Version Proofreading: Martha D. Schlemm; Portuguese Original Text Revision and Proofreading: Antonia Schwinden and Rita Kohl.
I wish to thank the inspirational texts of Angel Mestres Vila, Arnoldo de Hoyos, Aron Belinky, Jacques Dezelin, Jorge Wilheim, Joxean Fernandez, Maria Arlete Gonçalves, Melanie Swan, Silvina Martinez, Pichi de Benedictis, Rosa Alegria, and Wellington Nogueira. I call attention to the fact
that most of them resulted from participation in Crie Futuros activities.
The illustrations for our book were made especially by our expert visualizers of the future: Angela Leon, in 2012, and Rai (Raimundo Guimarães
Junior), in 2008. Special thanks to Adão Iturrusgarai, Carlos Dala Stella, Céu D’Ellia, Claude Giordano, Guto Lacaz, Jaime Prades and Monique Deheinzelin for the beautiful images ceded. Our special acknowledgment to the fabulous futuristic illustrator of the 1920’s and 1930’s, Frank Paul Rudolf and thanks to his grandson, William Engle Frank for allowing us to use his images. Valuable contributions also came from Paolat de La Cruz,
from the magazine La Lengua, and from Montevideo Comics.
Partners and supporters who made this publication possible: the 288 crowd founding collaborators, listed below, as well as Pedro Molina and
Ignacio Abbad Slocker, Centro Cultural da Espanha em São Paulo/AECID; Ricardo Resende and Ana Maria Rebouças, Centro Cultural São Paulo ; José
Mauro Gnaspini and Kiko Azevedo, Virada Cultural/Prefeitura Municipal de São Paulo; Luiz Coradazzi and Liliane Rebelo, British Council; Laís de
Andrade Villela and João Sassarão, Pancrom Gráfica.
The partnership of Arnoldo de Hoyos and Rosa Alegria, Núcleo de Estudos do Futuro PUC/SP; Aron Belinky, Vitae Civilis; Sergio Miguez and Gil
Torres, Livraria Cultura; Thiago Alixandre, Preta Ribeiro and Tati Almeida, Coletivo O12; André Palhano, Virada Sustentável; Luis Felipe Otavio Ribeiro, Catarse.
To all of those whose futures were collected in our wikifuturos or corporate workshops that fueled this book. It is possible to “wikilize” this
futures from the boxes, using the search tool in www.criefuturos.com. A large portion of the researched futures have not been published in full, but
they appear in my text – inspiring, amusing, and intelligent!
C redits, A cknowledgements, and H istory
159
Crie Futuros Thanks...
This book is the result of the Crie Futuros movement, which is why we took the opportunity to publicly express our gratitude to those who believed and supported the project.
I start by thanking our “godfathers”, who made our beginning possible. It was a great encouragement for us to know that we were worthy of
the much-coveted awards received: “Convocatória Aberta Permanente” (Spanish Agency for International Cooperation and Development) or “Novos Brasis” (“Oi Futuros”). Also for the invaluable conversations that helped to improve the project, our thanks to Ana Tomé, Director of “Centro
Cultural da Espanha no Brazil/AECID”; Alfons Martinell, Director of Cultural and Scientific Relations of AECID; Maria Arlete Gonçalves, Culture Director of Oi Futuro, Samara Werner, Education Director of Oi Futuro, Ana Toni Ford Foundation representative in Brazil, Marie Suzuki Fujisawa, Culture
Coordinator of Senac-SP. Special affection and admiration for Ana Tomé and Maria Arlete, great inspirers of Crie Futuros.
To all the people who, since 2008, have made or are still part of this team, to them also our special thanks. As it is impossible to list all of them
we highlight Ricardo Lima, of Bess Multimedia, creator of our website and technology, helped by Ronaldo Gonçalves Alves. To those who have carried on the coordination over these years, my true companions: Dina Cardoso, Marina Alonso, Tatiana Dascal, Luciana Prieto, and the invaluable care
of Marlene de Oliveira. João Sebastião Pavese, Bangalô Filmes for the audiovisual production over these years. Paula de Paoli for the graphic concept
of Crie Futuros.
The unforgettable generosity of those who followed our journey: Cristina
Meirelles, of Casa Sete, Maria Cândida di Pierro, Célia Sanda, Zeca Nunes; Gisele
Schwartz, Ana Maria Wilheim, Robson Ruy, Miguel Yasuyuki Hirota, Odara Carvalho,
Daniel Pires, Pedro Caetano Guedes. Thanks to all of you who have been with us all
these years!
Crie Futuros expanded and acquired diversity thanks to the Crie Futuros Nodes.
We emphasize and appreciate the excellent work carried out by Thomas Guido Illgen, Transit Projectes, Barcelona, Spain Node; Sergio Machin Cauda, Traful, Canelones, Uruguay Node, Paolat de la Cruz, Revista Lengua, Santo Domingo, Dominican
Republic Node; and the important collaboration of Mauricio Delfin and Lucia Cuba,
Realidad Visual, Lima, Peru Node; Katya Padilha, Mosaico Cultural, Valparaiso, Chile
Node and our “Honorary Node”: Centro de Expresiones Contemporáneas, Rosario,
Argentina, Pichi de Benedictis.
To our partners, whose knowledge and vision helped to shape and carry out the
project: Rosa Alegria and Núcleo de Estudos do Futuros/PUC-SP; Jordi Pardo, Barcelona Media; Angel Mestres, Transit Projectes; Bruce Mau e Bisi William, Massive
Perfume spray for bus stops. Cristian, Uruguay, 2009.
Change Network; Ronaldo Lemos and Paula Martini, Centro de Tecnologia e Socie-
142
desirable new world
dade and Overmundo; Reinaldo Pamponet, It’s Noon; Wellington Nogueira, Doutores da Alegria; Pedro Jatobá, Produtora Cultural Colaborativa;
Fred Gelli, Táctil Design; Angeles Díaz, Fundación Simetrias; Guiomar Alonso Cano, UNESCO; Jesús Prieto de Pedro, Consultores Culturales; Incubadora Tecnológica de Cooperativas Populares da FGV; Cássia Navas, Teatro da Dança; Danielle Fiabane, Instituto Criar; Laura Topete and José Luis
Mariscal Orozco, University of Guadalajara – UDG Virtual; Francisco Simplicio, Special Unit on South- South Cooperation; Yoshio Kakishima and Sanae Kosugi Bunka Fashion College; Ronaldo Robles,Cia Quase Cinema.
My brother, Daniel, always taking care of everything
and everyone, my sister Monique and also caring-conceptual mentors of Crie Futuros: Graça Cabral, Eduardo Giacomazzi, Beatrix Overmeer, Thomas Buckup, Léo Brant,
George Yudice, Sylvie Duran, Célio Turino, Fernando Rueda, Fernando Vicário, Sylvina Martinez, Silvia Villar Valverde, Ângela Hirata, Edson Natale, Julia Forlani, Anna
Helena Altenfelder, Anna Claudia Agazzi, Alvise Migoto,
Lorriane Johnson, Michael Kundt, Ariel Kogan, and the
guys from “Circuito Fora do Eixo”.
And my very special thanks and apologies to those
who I regretfully forgot to mention, and who I will remember as soon as the book is in print.
Souvenirs Machine. Filipe Meira Isenfee. Rio de Janeiro, 2011.
161
It was thrilling and fascinating to follow step-by-step the adhesion of the dear 288 crowd funding collaborators listed below.
Abel Falbo • Adélia Borges • Adélia Francheschini • Adriana Fortunato • Adriana Klisys • Alessandro Azevedo • Alexandra Aparício • Alexandra Schejelderup •
Alexandre Andrade • Alexandre Gomes • Alexandre Rebouças • Alfredo Martini Júnior • Alice • Alice Junqueira • Ana Carla Fonseca Cainha • Ana Correia • Ana Luisa
Lacombe • Ana Maria Wilheim • Ana Terra • André Martinez • Angelo Filardo • Angelo Piovesan • Anna Helena Altenfelder • Anna Van Steen • Antônio Mafra • Ariel
Kogan • Ariston Batista • Arô Ribeiro • Aroldo Batista • Augusto Tiburtius • Beatrix Overmeer • Bento Andreato • Beto De Jesus • Beto Firmino • Bia Blandy • Branca
Mandetta • Bruno Caramelli • Bubby Negrão • Cacá Machado • Cândido Azeredo • Carlos Dala Stella • Celso Pan • Cesar Piva • Chris Lima • Cibele De Barros • Cintia
Carvalho • Clara Irigoyen • Claudia Missura • Claudia Proushan • Claudia Taddei • Claudio Alvarez • Claudio Guedes • Cristina Zaccaria • Cyrce Andrade • Dani Lima
• Daniel Deheinzelin • Daniel Domeneghetti • Daniel Lima • Debora Laruccia • Demétrio Luiz Riguete Gripp • Denise Chaer • Denise Scarpa • Diego Conti • Dina
Cardoso • Diogo Melo • Dulce Maltez • Edegar Ferreira • Edgar Andrade • Edith Estela Pittier • Edson Natale • Eduardo Abramovay • Eduardo Barcellos • Eduardo
Giacomazzi • Eduardo Kobbi • Eduardo Muszkat • Eduardo Shimahara • Elisa Grinspum • Elisa Stecca • Elza Tamas • Elzo Sigueta • Eunice De Sá Cesnik • Fábio
Almeida • Fabio Feldmann • Fernanda Martins • Fernanda Rapacci • Fernando Belloube • Fernando Camilher Almeida • Fernando Grecco • Fernando Passos •
Fernando Stickel • Fernão Ramos • Flavia Berton • Flavia Lemes • Fred Furtado • Frederico Elboni • Gesta Cultura • Gilberto Bergstein • Gisela Heizenreder Cury •
Giselle Beiguelman • Gizeli Belloli • Glaucia Rodrigues • Graziela Araújo • Graziela Peres • Harmonia Solidária • Henrique Schucman • Homero Prado Lacreta Jr •
Homero Santos • Horácio Lafer Piva • Ibsen Costa Manso • Ignatius Abbad Slocker •Isabella Prata • Isis Palma • Ivenise Angelini • Jaime Prades • Jan Ghiraldini • Jany
Vargas Da Silva • Jaques Suchodolski • Jasmin Pinho• João Caldas • Jorge E Rubles • Jorge Grinspum • Jorge Sototuka • Jose Roberto Sadek • Josiane Del Corso •
Joxean Fernandez • Julia Forlani • • Julia Zardo • Julian Monteiro • Juliana Bollini • Julio Nogueira • Kaka Marinheiro • Kecya Donnelly • Kelynn Alves • Kluk Neto •
Laura Livia Calabi • Leeward Wang • Legis Schwartsburd • Liane Rossi • Lídia Goldeinstein • Lucia Merlino • Luciana Annunziata • Luciana Guilherme • Luciano Roxo •
Lucinaide Pinheiro • Luiz Alberto Moris • Luiz Algarra • Luiz De Franco Neto • Luiz Dos Santos • Magda Pucci • Malu Ramos • Manuel Blesa • Mara Mourão • Marcelo
Kahns • Marcelo Machado • Márcia Cristina Silva • Marcia De Barros • Marcia Matos • Marco Tulio Amaral • Marcos Renaux • Marcos T. Galvão (KALOY) • Margot
Ribas • Mari Salaroli • Maria Cândida di Pierro • Maria Cecilia Lacerda De Camargo • Maria Elena Chan • Maria Fernanda Costa • Maria Ferreira • Maria Thereza
Amaral • Mariana Garcia • Mariana Ochs • Marilia Viegas Araujo • Marina Barros • Marina Alonso • Marina Leão • Mário Candido da Silva Filho • Mario Henrique
Martins • Mario Tadokoro • Marisa Orth • Marise Cardoso • Mateus Mendonça • Mauricio Fernandes Pestana Moreira • Mauricio Iazzetta • Mauricio Pereira • Mayara
de Castro • Milzo Prado • Minom Pinho • Mônica Mion • Monique Deheinzelin • Nani Semiseck • Nelcivone Melo • Nelson Patron Chapira • Ney Piacentini • Nirvana
Marinho • Osvaldo Gabrieli • Osvaldo OZ •Oswaldo Pepe • Otavio Toledo • Paschoal Roma • Patrícia Fiori • Patrizia Bittencourt • Paula Alzugaray • Paula Lopez • Paula
Marcondes • Paula Martini • Paulo Suplicy • Paulo Von Poser • Pedro Mourão • Photozofia Arte E Cozinha • Pico Garcez • Preta Ribeiro • Rafael Reinehr • Rangel
Arthur Mohedano • Regina Ponce • Regina Silva • Reinaldo Pamponet • Renata Moraes Abreu • Renato Ribeiro • Ricardo Voltolini • Ricardo Albuquerque • Ricardo
Farah • Ricardo Guimarães • Ricardo Penachi De Camargo • Ricardo Ramos Filho • Ricardo Viviani • Richard Geyer • Roberto Amaral • Roberto Hirsch • Robson
Spadoni • Rodolfo Carreto • Ronaldo Gonçalves Alves • Ronaldo M. Silveira Silveira • Rosa Alegria • Rosalu Fladt Queiroz • Rosana Grant • Rosana Padial • Rose Ferraz
• Ruth Klotzel • Ruth Slinger • Ryan Donnelly • Sabrina Gledhill • Sara Asseis De Brito • Schirlei Freder • Sergio Ajzenberg • Sérgio Barbosa (Case) • Sergio Mastrocola
• Sergio Mattos Lomelino • Sergio Oeda • Sergio Roizenblit • Sheila Saraiva • Silvia Elboni • Silvia M. Do Espírito Santo • Silvia Rosenbaum • Silvina Martinez • Silvio
Francisco • Solange Ferraz De Linz • Solange Salva • Sonia Lara • Sonia Sobral • Tadeu Jungle • Tais Tatit Barossi • Tânia Bustamante • Tania Nomura • Tatiana Cobbett
• Tatiana De Simone • Tatiana Lohmann • Thiago Alixandre • Tuco Freire • Vany Alves • Vera Caetano • Vera Loureiro • Viviane Rodriguez • VM John • Waldir Martins
• Wellington Nogueira • Yoshihiro Odo • Zita Carvalhosa • + anonymous
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desirable new world
HISTory
JUN
São Paulo, Brazil.
Future and Innovation Crie Futuros - Mckinsey.
Aug
São Paulo, Brazil.
Crie Futuros Presentation at the Cultural Center of Spain.
Launch of Web TV Crie Futuros. Simultaneous transmission of events.
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Crie Futuros Ibero-American Games and Best Worlds.
Crie Futuros Encounter Spanish Cooperation.
JUN
2008
Crie Futuros Presentation Pecha Kucha Knight 2008.
SET
São Paulo, Brazil.
International Seminar Crie Futuros Creative Economy.
Dynamics Crie Futuros Instituto Criar.
Crie Futuros Evening.
NOV
São Paulo, Brazil.
JUL
Awarded the price Novos Brasis, with support by Oi Futuro.
Crie Futuros Evening 2.
Crie Futuros Workshop - a better future is possible. Fórum Social
Mundial.
Belém, Brazil.
2009
São Paulo, Brazil.
MAR
Buenos Aires,
Argentina.
Awarded the price “CAP – Convocatória Aberta e Permanente”, with
the support of Spanish Agency for International Cooperation and
Development.
MAI
Valparaiso, Chile.
Aug
São Paulo, Brazil.
Crie Futuros Ibero-America Body and Movement.
Barcelona, Spain.
Crie Futuros – The Future of Literature - Cut and Paste Workshop.
Crie Futuros Workshop in Schools.
Denver, USA.
Presentation of Crie Futuros as node for the Biennial of Denver. With
Bruce Mau.
Toledo, Uruguay.
Crie Futuros Presentation at the Seminar on Cultural Dissemination
and Management.
São Paulo, Brazil.
Launch new version of Wikifuturos 2.0 - more collaborative and
appropriate to the Wiki concept.
Workshop Crie Futuros Sustainable Puc - DERDIC.
Crie Futuros Evening - Cultural Saturday.
Montevideo, Uruguay.
Crie Futuros Presentation at the Sixth Euro-American Campus for
Cultural Cooperation.
Launch of site WIkifuturos 1.0 - Collaborative Digital Encyclopedia of
Desirable Futures.
Crie Futuros and Creative Economy Workshop. Creative Industries
Program.
Meeting of social entrepreneurs and innovators with Bruce Mau,
Denver, USA.
Crie Futuros Evening for the Cultural Ibero-American Chart.
2009
JAN
Denver, USA.
Canelones, Uruguay.
Crie Futuros and Culture of Peace.
OUT
Crie Futuros Ibero-America Collaborative Technology and Production.
Reflection on the future of literary forms.
São Paulo, Brazil.
Workshop Crie Futuros Sustainable Puc - DERDIC.
Montevideo, Uruguay.
Valparaíso, Chile.
SET
Creation of the Crie Futuros Network with members in seven
countries: Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Spain, Peru, Dominican Republic
e Uruguay.
Santo Domingo,
Domenican Republic.
Barcelona, Spain
Crie Futuros Launch of social network. www.criefuturos.com.br.
Lima, Peru.
OUT
Crie Futuros Workshop in the prison for women.
Barcelona, Spain.
Montevideo, Uruguay
São Paulo, Brazil.
Crie Futures Workshop on the futures of art performance.
Crie Futuros Workshop and Radio Program.
Crie Futuros Workshop Ibero-American Cultural Chart.
Reflection on the future of art practices, “Centro de Creación y
Pensamiento Contemporáneo” de Mataró Can Xalant.
Crie Futuros Workshop - The Future of Transportation and the City.
Making-of the video “El futuro de La Web”.
Crie Futuros Seminar - New Banks and Currency.
Toledo, Spain.
Montevideo, Uruguay
Montevideo,
Uruguay.
2009
JUN
São Paulo, Brazil.
Wikidelícia - Meeting for conversation and exchange of experiences
and creation of futures.
Exhibition: “nas Esquinas de Montevideo”.
JUL
São Paulo, Brazil.
Crie Futuros FILE.
Gala closure of the presentation of the futures created in Uruguay in
2009.
Crie Futuros Workshop in the Seminar “
Rede Jovem - Um Espírito de um Tempo”.
Santo Domingo,
Domenican Republic.
Crie Futuros Encounter Dominican Republic - “El futuro del design y
de la Fotografía”. Special issue of the Lengua magazine with created
futures.
Guadalajara, Mexico.
Lecture “Crie Futuros: Redes Virtuales y futuros deseables” at the 18th
International Meeting on Distance Education.
Rosário, Argentina.
JAN
Montevideo,
Uruguay.
FEV
São Paulo, Brazil.
São Paulo, Brazil.
Workshop Melanie Swan.
São Paulo, Brazil.
Crie Futuros Workshop, Feira Preta.
Crie Futuros Workshop - What is the future of the relationship
between technology and society? Plasma 2009.
Crie Futuros at The Sixth International Conference on Innovation and
Management (ICIM 2009).
Planning of the Ibero-American Cultural Virtual Parliament.
Crie Futuros Meeting with Uruguay Facilitators.
Crie Futuros Tátil Workshop.
FEV
Montevideo,
Uruguay.
ABR
MAI
Porto Alegre, Brazil.
JUN
Salvador, Brazil.
MAR
Chascomus,
Argentina.
MAI
São Paulo, Brazil.
Barroso, Brazil.
JUN
Crie Futuros Workshop at the FLIP ZONE (Parati International Book Fair).
Wikidelícia - Meeting for conversation and exchange of experiences
and creating of futures.
Tokyo, Japan.
NOV
Development of Pocket Future based on the Creative Economy
Seminar.
São Paulo, Brazil.
Guadalajara, Mexico.
Crie Futuros Workshop and Lecture Rede Globo - Trends for desirable
futures.
São Paulo, Brazil.
Parati, Brazil.
Aug
Crie Futuros Workshop: the future of design and Photography
Embu, Brazil.
DEZ
Crie Futuros Workshop at the Social DNA Forum.
The Future of Tourism.
Criar Toledo: Workshop, urban action e shows Crie Futuros.
Reflection on the future of audiovisual.
Lima, Peru.
Campinas, Brazil.
Ibero-American Virtual Parliament Workshop.
Brazil e Domenican
Republic.
Barcelona, Spain.
Santo Domingo,
Domenican Republic.
Rosário, Argentina.
JANMAI
Crie Futuros Workshop with children.
São Paulo, Brazil.
2010
Crie Futuros Workshop with educators.
Toledo, Uruguay.
Vitória, Espírito
Santo, Brazil
NOV
Crie Futuros Encounter- Spain. “El futuro de la cultura”.
2010
OUT
ABR
2011
Barcelona, Spain.
Reflection of the future of the independent cultural agents.
2012
Madrid, Spain.
163
São Paulo, Brazil.
Creative economy, sustainability and the future, Bunka Fashion College.
Workshop BASF.
Workshop: “Crea Futuros: redes virtuales y futuros deseables”,
Nineteenth Encounter on Distant Education.
Launch of the site: “Cree Futuros las Americas 2011” and Crie Futuros
Workshop.
FILE Games Rio 2011 Address the future - Create Desirable Futures.
Crie Futuros Workshop in VIVO enCena POA.
Crie Futuros workshop in VIVO enCENA Salvador.
Crie Futuros Workshop in REM 2.0.
Gathering of futures in Virada Cultural.
Shadow shows Crie Futuros in Virada Cultural.
Crie Futuros Workshop Minas Retroverso.
Gathering of futures in Virada Sustentável.
Crie Futuros Workshop Ecoação Cultural in Centro Cultural São Paulo.
Between its inception and distribution, this
book was completed in 90 days by a frantic and happy
team. We thank you for having come this far and apologize for
any inevitable slips that you may find.
We take this opportunity to say that the desirable futures, both
plausible and implausible, were printed by Pancrom, on the day
of the Venus eclipse of 2012, on Couche Kroma Gloss
paper using Frutiger and HandTimes fonts.
Jaime Prades,
2012.
“If everything was possible, how would you want
things to be?” This is the question that gave rise to
the desirable futures upon which this book is based
and organized according to everyday-life themes:
 Gain, Valuate, Negotiate  Govern, Decide, Coordinate
 Inhabit, Move, Circulate  Care, Nurture, Preserve
 Learn, Create, Communicate  Be, Relate, Connect
The creative outlook on life, in 2042, has three pillars that are essential to sustainability in
the future: Creative Economy, an economy based on intangible resources; information and
communication technologies; and collaborative processes plus new ways of organizing a
network society.
Produced with the support of 288 people by crowd funding at the Catarse website plus:
Support:
Partners: